An Emo and a Yautja
by The Viscount Vampyre
Summary: A human finds more than just palm trees and bikinis on this island trip. Read and review SVP. 20/20. Last chapter up, I hope you enjoy. 03/09/18 Sequel has been released! Check it out!
1. Chapter 1

Author's forward:

Hello! This is my first work which I can say I've actually 'really' finished. If you're here for 'porn with plot', then there are many chapters which I may direct you to: 3, 5, and 7, come to mind. I think there's another but I am unsure.

But anyways, if you were looking for a semi-serious story between a Human and a Yautja then this actually has that as well.

Now without any adieu please enjoy my story;

EDIT 25/07/2019

To adhere to FF guidelines I have redacted many scenes, and censored much of the sexually explicit content. If you'd like to read this in its original uncensored version please follow me on Archive of Our Own (Ao3).

Thank you.

An Emo and a Yautja

"We're here on a vacation, and the least you could do, for once, is not to embarrass your father or me by wearing that makeup everywhere."

The boy rolled his eyes and turned his iPod headphones even louder, another act of defiance carelessly thrown in his stepmothers face.

He was wearing eyeliner and a liberal amount of eyeshadow, that, in addition to his relatively expansive wardrobe of profanity ridden clothing, and overall presentation drew nothing but ire from his parents.

Currently the family was in a rental car driving from the airport towards the expansive resort they would be staying in for the next week, and having come off of a long flight and wholly stressed by adjusting to the temperature, collecting their luggage, renting the car, and everything else associated with the vacation production the air with the cabin of the car was tense to say the least.

This air of tension was exacerbated by the loud music coming from the boy's headphones.

Beside him his younger sister yanked out the headphone jack and grabbed his iPod which was resting in between the torn material of a hole cut into the thigh of his skinny jeans.

He immediately looked away from the window towards the offending party, preparing his hands to try and wrestle, or rip, his music back.

"Clair!" he yelled.

"What! Maybe the rest of us don't want to hear your 'sab baton' or whatever garbage for the hundredth time."

In silent agreement the parents in the front of the car nodded, before one of them spoke up, deescalating the situation.

"Stop it both of you, we're nearly to the hotel, once we're there you can both do what you want as far from each other as you want."

Reluctantly the two siblings relented and Clair handed back her brothers iPod.

Staring out the window at the rolling tropical coastline our resident, rebellious, boy, could only think of two things; ogling girls on the beach, and going for a walk alone.

Pulling into the portes-cochère of the hotel, the family exited their car and immediately the Valet and lobby staff began assisting in unloading the bags and ushering the new guests towards the air conditioned and cool modern lobby of the grand hotel.

Hotel de Palma Blanca, was a massive complex built closely to the beach and encompassed a very large portion of the total area of the island the family was staying on. In addition to its beachfront access the Hotel also entertained guests with many hiking-trails, through the jungle and mountains, all closer towards the interior of the island.

After checking in and settling into their suite, the two parents set into relaxing on their large bed while the two kids were now free to do as they pleased.

Clair immediately opened her bags and went into the bathroom to change into a swimsuit, deciding to spend the remaining daylight getting used to the heat and the sun of the beach.

Jake left the room as soon as he threw his bag onto a bed, and he set towards an exploratory walk.

He had grabbed a map of the resort and the island from the lobby concierge desk and set off towards a garden area not far from the hotel in the jungle.

The area was one of the listed must see spots; a natural spring and waterfall which was large enough to swim in. It was almost a guarantee of seeing some chicks in bikinis. Of course the beach of the resort was probably more populated it was bound to be weird with all the families, young kids, and stuff, for a fully clothed emo kid to be on the beach.

Though his plan wasn't exactly the most well thought out either.

But what would you expect of a jet-lagged, sex deprived, antisocial, young adult?

Jake was a few hundred yards from the hotel and had just started on the gravel path when the thought dawned on him, that maybe black skinny-jeans and a tight fitting darkly coloured t-shirt was not the best attire to go hiking into the jungle with.

But the promise of seclusion, with the potential to see or even talk to hot women, was enough to spur the young emo music listing lad onwards.

By the time he had made it to the spring and waterfall he wasn't exactly sure that all his effort was worth it, and he audibly groaned at the idea he'd have to walk back.

The spring was certainly a must see place, and the mist coming off the waterfall was wonderfully cooling. The area was unfortunately deserted, and showed no recent signs of life, much to the young-man's hormone fueled disappointment.

Walking towards the rocky edge of the pool Jake looked around again, straining his eyes to try and see if there was anyone coming down or up from any of the many trails into the clearing.

Each path was as dark and devoid of movement as the other and Jake breathed out a small sigh.

At least he could have the whole area to himself for a while.

Sitting on a large boulder Jake leaned over to untie his pink and black custom converse high-tops. Then he pulled off his socks and folded up his pant legs slightly, planning to dip his feet into the water for a while as he sat in the shade, and zoned out to some music.

Surprisingly he wasn't playing anything offensive or 'hard-core', instead he had some soft pop album that he'd recently gotten into as a suggestion from a friend of his.

He'd been using this specific artist to wind down to, and he would, without fail, be able to nap to the album, and had the uncanny ability to wake up as soon as it was done.

Cooling his feet off, sitting in the shade, the young emo subsequently passed out, and his chest slowly rose up and down, in a steady rhythm. His necklaces rattled slightly with each breath.

Overhead a huntress was eyeing him intently.

Sitting cloaked on a thick tree branch was a female Yautja, predator, and she looked intently at the human who had unwittingly walked into her field of vision.

She was not on a hunt, instead she had come to this island with much the same desire as the many human families, namely to relax and enjoy ones' self.

As such she was not equipped with an extensive array of weapons, in fact at present she did not possess any at all other than a long serrated dagger, about the size of a Bowie knife.

The human male she was looking at was curiously dressed, and also shaped.

She could tell he was young, and from his size he was not a warrior, in fact he appeared as sickly and unfit. He didn't have significant musculature, and was quite thin; as she watched him walk she could also hear his shallow breathing, indicating he had limited stamina.

Even amongst humans he would probably be very easy to dominate, and physically defeat, though he was probably intelligent, and capable of outsmarting opponents in spite of his physically unimposing appearance.

He had long, unnaturally coloured hair, with facial piercings, and he also wore dark smudge on his face. She assumed this was all to do with a customary form of beautification, and in a perverse way she could understand and recognize that he was 'pretty'.

Having sized him up she guessed he'd probably weigh no more than 120 pounds, and was probably no older than 20 years. Still a pup, she laughed.

His wrists were adorned with many bracelets, beads, and jewels, and he bore a few necklaces as well.

Watching him for several minutes after he had lied down the huntress determined that he was indeed unconscious.

And she noiselessly moved from her perch to look at him closer. She could have just as easily zoomed in using her visor, but she wanted to get close enough to touch her prey.

Getting closer to the sleeping human she saw that he had left his small electronic device on his stomach. It had a chord which split into two ends, both of which went into his ears, and she cocked her head in confusion at what possible uses the device rendered to their operator.

The huntress was now very close, and she had knelt to observe the boy's breathing.

It went up and down steadily, and she was able to look at the strangeness of the creature's face.

He had two black lip rings on either side of his mouth, and a small steel bar through his right eyebrow, then his eyelids were covered in black soot, or some other such substance, and she saw that against the makeup, the black of his clothes, and dark colour of his hair the human's skin was a bright pale.

She almost admired the human's hair, it was dark almost black but with a tinge of purple throughout, the bangs came down to almost cover his eyes, and the sides covered his neck.

Though the huntress couldn't help but regard his clothing with unease. His shirt and his pants seemed deliberately unsuited for the environment, and they would not serve well for movement should he try to run, or if he needed to perform strenuously in them.

He had removed his footwear to expose his very pale and tiny, appendages. The huntress always remarked how similar humans were to Yautja, but then they had such almost handicapping differences.

His feet for example, the structure was the same as to hers, but the toes were far too small, and the nails were so thin and underdeveloped they could never help to hold a position in a tree. Hers were sharp and strong enough to help anchor tightly to most naturally occurring surfaces.

His hands and fingernails too were far too small, for the things a Yautja could do. Strangely enough this human's nails were black, whether it was natural or he did it himself she did not know. But either way his wrists and arms were so thin she knew she could easily break them if she so desired.

She looked at his shoes and the thin pieces of material that were on him underneath the shoe, and she couldn't help but let her curiosity get the better of her. She pensively reached across his sleeping body to pick up one of the two black socks lying across his shoes.

It was surprisingly soft to the touch and fuzzy too.

She'd take it as a minor trophy, signifying the proximity she was able to get to an unconscious human. She couldn't help but click her tusks and laugh slightly.

De-cloaking herself she opened a pouch on her belt to stow the new acquisition of the benign sock.

Evidentially she made much more noise than she thought she was, below her, Jake had woken up.


	2. Chapter 2

Waking up from a brief nap to see a literal monster standing over top of you would send anyone into a panic, and for Jake he was no exception.

His eyes were about the size of the moon as he attempted to rationalize the sight looming right beside him.

It looked almost human, except it had lizard like spots and colourings, its hair if you could call it that, was thick, dreadlock like, tendrils, and it had rippling musculature. There was absolutely no body fat on the creature at all, incredibly defined abs protruded along the creature's belly, and the creatures arms were very well exercised.

The creature didn't have a face, or at least it was completely obscured by a plain metallic mask, in addition to the mask the creature was wearing a segmented skirt like belt, and f-fishnets? The whole garb of the monster gave off a tribal vibe and finally Jake saw the most confusing thing of all;

The creature had breasts.

Round, nipple-having, breasts.

Other than the fish-netting the creature wasn't wearing anything on its, or more accurately her, chest.

Through some miracle Jake didn't scream, though everything in his panic and terror ridden mind was demanding that he did.

He was doing well in controlling himself, but in order to do so he held his breath.

Eventually the lack of his audible breathing caused the creature to look away from her belt towards him, and that's when he saw the massive metal knife on her thigh.

He lost it and let out a high pitched terror ridden scream and pushed as hard as he could the mask wearing creature.

Though he was lying down, and significantly smaller than the monster, he had the advantage of surprise, and panic deployed adrenaline.

The huntress was taken off guard so much she was not only startled at the scream and the assault on her person, but she too was momentarily scared and confused.

Jakes hands landed right into her abdomen, and hit with enough force, and she was surprised enough, that it caused her to fall from her crouched position right on to her alien ass.

Turning away from the monster Jake struggled to get to his feet, and crawl-sprinted as he attempted to stand.

Swiftly the Yautja was able to make it to her feet and it took her two steps to catch up to Jake.

Jake was sputtering and hyperventilating from the terror, unaware of the hot tears streaming down his face, or of the proximity of the monster.

He was able to rise into a standing position and he lunged a wet foot forwards to begin sprinting for his life when the dirt and sand underneath him gave away and he twisted to the side, falling over.

He winded himself, and was growing lightheaded due to the panic induced hyperventilation and having knocked his head against the ground. Reaching his arms out frantically he struggled to crawl before the monster flipped him over onto his back with her foot.

He brought his arms up in an effort to defend himself, but the creature was far too strong and easily grabbed him by his wrists.

She moved both wrists to one of her hands, and with her free hand drew her large blade.

Immediately Jake stopped writhing and struggling and instead started sputtering and pleaded with the creature.

"P… Please! Oh Fuck! Please don't! Please don't!" He repeated, "I don't want to die! Please! Please!" he struggled to breathe and scream at the same time, and he stuttered severely.

The creature held a finger up to where her mouth would have been if she wasn't wearing the mask and Jake understood the command, 'be quiet', though it was hard to comply.

He continued breathing erratically, and his teeth chattered as his body shivered from the terror.

She let go of his wrists and he brought them underneath his chin in two small fists as he shook underneath the hulking creature.

She brought the knife closer and he was certain he was about to die when she then quickly sheathed it.

He took a sharp breath in surprise and she brought her hands up into view, open, fingers spread out, a non-verbal indication of both no-harm and no-threat.

Despite her unthreatening body language, Jake was surprised he hadn't pissed himself he was so scared.

She then took a step backward and slowly sat down into a legs crossed position.

He was still scared but, the chemicals secreted in his head were now countering the anxiety slightly, giving him a wholly exhausted and numb feeling.

The tears had stopped flowing, but his face now had long dark streaks of eyeliner and eyeshadow and his mascara was clumped now in the corner of his eyes.

He looked over at the sitting monster and lied motionless for several minutes before he stopped shaking.

After a few minutes of lying still, he was able to breathe without hyperventilating, and he slowly tried looking at the creature. She was tall, even sitting down. She was definitely taller than him and stronger too. Even dimensionally she was bigger than him.

Her belt seemed so strangely alien to him, and then of all things, he looked at her tits.

Her breathing was unnaturally calm, and her chest moved very slowly with each breath. Her breasts moved slightly with each breath, but it wasn't enough to make them jiggle or anything. Her dark areolae protruded though the netting, as it ever so slightly pressed into her flesh.

His staring was evidently seen by the creature and she held out her hand with two fingers extended pointing at Jake, then she pointed towards the visor of her mask with her single index finger.

Jake's adrenaline filled mind struggled to comprehend as he thought;

'Did… Did I just get called out by a monster…?'

She then chuckled at his expression, like, actually laughed; it was deep in her throat and scared Jake slightly but even though he was still terrified he got the joke, and an answer to his question; yes. Yes he did.

When he was no longer on the verge of peeing his pants, Jake slowly began moving his body, muscles aching and joints straining from the overdrive of a true fight or flight scenario.

Slowly he pushed himself into a sitting position, and he locked his eyes on the monster in front of him.

His heartbeat hadn't slowed down, and he could feel it in his throat as he struggled to speak.

"W-what… are you…?" he finally stammered out.

The creature cocked its head and pointed upwards.

Her long fingers were adorned with long, thick, black, talon-like nails.

Jake struggled to understand, until a wild possibility came into his head, "L-like from space?"

The creature nodded, seemingly able to completely understand him.

"Y-you're an alien? Holy shit…"

Jake, was blown away by the revelation that he was literally a few feet away from an actual extra-terrestrial alien.

He calmed down a little bit more, and he continued to talk to the expressionless, faceless, alien creature.

"A-are you g-going to kill me…?" he finally croaked out.

The alien shook her head, her dreadlocks whipping from side to side slightly as she did so.

Taking a series of deep breaths Jake's body slightly relaxed at the confirmation.

"Oh, thank god…"

Jake then started to rise to a standing position, and he stared unblinkingly at the visor of the masked alien.

"I... I'm going to go now…" he said before taking a step backwards. Until that point the alien had watched him quietly and unflinchingly.

After the step and those words however she immediately hopped to her feet and shook her head.

Out of reflex Jake spoke what came into his mind, "What? What do you mean 'no'?"

She took a few steps forward, and seeing her at full height, standing just a few feet away Jake unconsciously lowered himself in fear.

She puffed out her chest and straightened her shoulders, showing off her muscles, and size, playing the universal game of animal physical dominance.

Jake, subconsciously wanted to attempt to compete but he was far too scared to move again.

A silent minute passed and he gulped before straightening his back and standing as high as he could.

He was nearly two heads shorter than the alien, and she began looking him over visibly moving her head up and down, and shifting her weight from leg to leg, moving her view of him to eye him up.

Jake's leg was shaking so badly he tried pinching himself to stay 'in control'.

She then drew her dagger again and Jake immediately froze. Holding his breath, he stared right into the visor.

She pointed with a finger back towards the spring and waved with her knife indicating that he was to move that way.

He quickly obliged.

She then made a circle with her hand, indicating he was to turn around, and his lip shook slightly as he stood not moving.

Making the circle now with the knife he reluctantly turned to face away from the alien.

He could hear her sheath it again and she took a few steps forward closing the distance between them.

He was so terrified now that he couldn't see her; he couldn't decide which was worse; viewing it, or just hearing it.

Behind him he could feel her proximity, and he let out a yelp as her hands touched his shoulders.

His heartbeat and breathing were in a state of confusion as he tensed, waiting for what was going to happen next.

The hands then surprised him by squeezing slightly. Her palms were very warm, and her hands were unbelievably strong.

She squeezed his shoulders, and slowly relaxed her grip several times before she then moved her hands down his arms, doing the same thing, squeezing, and then releasing.

Bringing a hand up towards Jake's neck she ran one of her long nails down his throat, eliciting a sharp inhale through his teeth.

She now took a final step so that her body was pressed up against Jake's back.

Running her fingers down from his neck, she rubbed her middle finger down the middle of Jake's chest, resting it against the left side just under his nipple, feeling his heartbeat.

With her other hand she lifted up his tight shirt and squeezed her hand underneath, stretching the material slightly.

He made a 'yeep-like' sound at the sudden presence against his abdomen.

She touched his stomach, and felt his sweat slick body, occasionally tightening her hand so that her nails dug into Jake's soft, supple skin.

He made slight noises each time he felt her sharp nails graze his skin and he struggled to keep calm as he was basically being felt up.

He was too terrified and intimidated to say, or do anything though, and even if he did, she could probably break him in half if she wanted.

Moving her hand from off his chest and her other hand from out of his shirt she went back to squeezing his shoulders again.

Through everything though, a part of him admitted that the slight massage did feel nice.

He made the slightest of sounds through his breathing, which was to indicate pleasure; he made the quietest groan of satisfaction and she heard it.

She pushed him downwards and he fell to his knees with a surprised yelp.

She began squeezing slightly harder, and punctuated the squeeze by actually massaging his shoulders.

'This is the weirdest moment of my entire life…' he thought.

After several minutes Jake actually began to give in and enjoy the sensation of being massaged by the alien amazon.

His quiet sounds of pleasure satisfied the alien and soon enough she stopped with a very tight squeeze.

After she let go, Jake was surprised at how well his muscles felt and he turned his head to try and look at her.

"D-do you have a name?" He asked, half joking, and he let out a slight laugh as he rolled his shoulders.

She had sat down on a rock and had removed her metal sandal-like footwear.

When he saw her she was authoritatively pointing at her feet.

'Wait… what?' Jake quickly thought.

"You want me to… rub your feet?"

The female alien nodded, and held up her long spotted leg.

Jake shook his head at the ridiculousness of the situation, and obligingly made his way, tentatively, towards her.

He held out his hands and picked up one of her large feet, and was surprised at how warm her skin was, and how deceptively rough her skin was. The darker areas of her spotted skin were rough and hard to the touch but the lighter areas, such as the underside and in-between her toes were soft and smooth.

He struggled to stop shaking as he held her, and he rather poorly attempted to rub the ball of her foot.

She cocked her head to one side and despite not seeing her face he could almost feel her irritation.

Eventually she gave a slight roar and she puffed her chest out in displeasure.

His eyes went wide and he dropped the foot, bringing his hands up towards his chest.

"I'm sorry! I don't know what to do!" He spoke earnestly.

She growled slightly as she eased back down, to a relaxed sitting position.

As if she were saying 'fine…' she retracted her feet and leaned over to tie her sandals back up.

By way of apology Jake leant over and tried helping her.

Wrapping and clipping the strange footwear back on, he was trying to make up for offending the hulking alien.

She nodded in approval slightly when he finished and looked up at her masked face.

Looking back down Jake didn't know what to do, or what was going to happen next.

The huntress looked beside her at Jakes shoes and sock and she stood up to go and pick them up.

Before she could though a loud musical chime went off and surprised her.

It was emanating from the human.

Jake looked down at his pocket and struggled to pull his phone free from his skinny jeans.

Looking back at the masked alien he didn't know what to do.

She was able to understand it was a communicator of some sort and she drew her blade and brought it close to Jake.

He took a chance and unlocked the phone, thus answering the call.

She nodded and raised a finger to her mouth again.

He brought it to his ear and quietly spoke; "H-Hello?"

She knelt closer to him and leaned in.

"Jake, it's your father, where are you? We're trying to decide what to have for dinner."

Jake exhaled at how the banal question compared to the situation he was in.

He took a gulp, and responded, "I don't know, w-what do you guys feel like?"

His father took a moment to respond, "Jake, are you okay? You better not be doing anything…" he paused as he collected himself, "…stupid again."

Jake shook his head emphatically, "No, no, no. Not at all, I'm not thinking that… that way anymore…" he sputtered out.

There was a deep breath before his father continued, "I'm sorry son… I just, okay. You just sound a little out of breath is all?"

Jake nodded, "Yeah I uh, just climbed a bit of a hill…"

"Okay, well, we'll figure something out when you get back; just don't take too long okay?"

"Okay. I… I won't"

Jake hung up and looked at the alien.

She sheathed the blade again and nodded at him.

He pushed the phone back into his pocket and held his hands out palm upward.

She nodded again and moved closer still. He wanted to lean back, she was uncomfortably close.

But before he could she grabbed either side of the base of his shirt and pulled up, exposing his pale abdomen.

He involuntarily shouted; "What the hell!?"

Before he could voice additional protest or move his hands she peeled the tight shirt all the way up to his face, covering it and forcing his arms upwards.

She then pushed him backwards and when he landed on his back she pinned his hands down with one of hers while she continued rubbing his chest with the other.

"What are you doing?!"

She rubbed her hand across his chest, down his abdomen; she pinched slightly, she scratched, and she pulled at him. She felt his ribs, which were visible on his sides, and finally she rested her hand on his right pec.

She stopped moving briefly and he struggled against her strong pinning grip, attempting to leverage enough so that he could try and move his shirt off his face and his bangs out of his eyes.

Then she squeezed his nipple, lightly, surprising him enough that he didn't notice what she did at first.

Then she did it again, and it elicited a surprised and uncharacteristic sound from him.

"W-what the fuck are you doing?" he futilely asked.

She then pinched and rolled the small pink nipple in between her large fingers.

"Ah!-Ow! That hurts you know!"

She then did the same to the other side, and he made a similarly high pitched protest.

"Ouch! S-stop that!"

She purr-growled at him and he quickly quieted. His chest now started going up and down with a strained pace.

Watching him breathe, the Yautja seemed to enjoy viewing the pale human's chest go up and down. Beads of sweat rolled down his ribs towards his back and she dragged a finger down the middle of his chest, over his belly button, and ended it by lightly resting her hand on his crotch.

He stopped breathing sharply and froze.

She pressed her hand down on his privates and he immediately tried fighting her hand off his wrists with new resolve.

Her grip was like steel, and didn't budge at all. Her other hand started rubbing the inside of his thighs, and occasionally her warm skin would touch his through the torn hole on one of the jeans' thighs.

She eventually loosened her grip and Jake tried to pull his shirt down. He only got to pull it back down enough to cover his upper chest before she moved her hand to touch his face.

The hand was so large it easily cupped the side of his head.

His bottom lip shook as he shivered.

She took hold of one of his hands and he shook at the ease with which she was able to command his movement, his own body seemingly betrayed him. She brought it towards her breast and she placed it on top of her large bosom.

Jake shook and didn't move. Eventually she took his hand in hers again and moved it in a circular fashion, indicating what she desired him to do.

Terrified, and weirded out, he obliged and slowly began feeling her chest.

It was soft and warm. Everywhere he made contact with her skin he was surprised at just how warm she was.

Through the fishnet he squeezed her slightly and began pushing and rotating her nipple with his thumb. Her areola was a dark colour, and within a few moments of touching and rubbing it, it became taut and hardened under his touch, making the flesh appear even darker.

She began purring at the sensation and the hand that was on Jake's thigh began rubbing his crotch again.

He doubted he could possibly get hard like this, but he couldn't exactly find his voice to protest at the moment and instead blurted out a question,

"D-do you like that?" He asked as he moved his hand to the other breast.

The alien nodded, and she moved so that she was now kneeling over him, then she lowered down until her thighs were on either side of him, and her crotch was above his.

Tentatively he brought up his other hand to awkwardly fondle both her breasts at once.

She purred louder and moved her hand off his crotch, grabbing instead both sides of his hips and lowering herself so that she was now resting her large glutes, lightly, on top of his thighs.

Jake closed his eyes and focused only on the feeling of the two large breasts he was now holding and urged his mind to just go blank.

His last girlfriend had had breasts that were more than a handful, though he couldn't remember the exact cup size, these ones by comparison were at least three times larger.

The alien leaned forward and brought a hand to caress his face again, and he opened his eyes at the touch. He stopped feeling her chest and instead tried exploring her sides with his hands.

Moving down her ribs he stopped to squeeze every now and then. Her thick skin released heat wherever he touched, and her strong muscles tensed when he touched her.

Her purring didn't stop, and instead began to grow loud enough that she vibrated his legs slightly. He was able to place his hands on her back and he took a gulp before pulling slightly. Indicating he wanted her to lie more on top of him.

Surprisingly, she obliged, and she lowered closer to his chest.

With a greater access to her back he began rubbing his hands up and down, from what he could reach of her shoulders, and then to just above her belt.

Then he was shocked to realize something…

He had an erection.

It pressed up through his skinny jeans and she stopped purring when she felt it against her thigh.

She leaned up and looked down.

Her purring resumed when she realized what it was.

Without warning or hesitation she moved until she had given herself enough room, and then she forcefully pulled his pants down.

"AH! What the fu-"

xxxxx

In response, Jake involuntarily let slip a moan.

Squeezing him a little harder, Jake moaned a little louder through gritted teeth.

She made a clicking noise before she let go of him and unclipped her belt. The belt, short segmented skirt and her knife sheath all fell to the ground with a heavy dull 'thunck', revealing a black, bikini-like single piece of underwear.

Jake's breathing was shallow and wild as he looked on, wide eyed, and surprised.

She unclipped the side of the underwear through the fish-netting, and pulled it away to reveal her xxxxx

Jake, never actually had sex, he got really close with his last girlfriend, but she had just broken up with him a few months ago, and so, the emo was still a virgin, only ever having gotten to third base. That and porn.

Out of nervousness he blurted out, "I… I… I've never…"

The Yautja cocked her head to the side, and then it sunk in.

She clicked and purred in a perverse satisfaction as she lowered herself onto Jake, and enveloped his hard-on between her lightly glistening labia.

Jake took in a breath sharply and released a high pitched moan.


	3. Chapter 3

Upon realizing what he meant when he spoke, the huntress couldn't help but sadistically enjoy the additional trophy she'd be taking in the form of the human's virginity.

xxx

His moans were surprisingly pleasing to hear, but the huntress was a dominant creature, and Yautja mating practises were anything but gentle. So out of height she brought a hand up to begin choking him slightly.

Watching his panicked expressions gave her a perverse sadistic pleasure.

He had both hands futilely struggling to loosen her grip on his neck, and she only eased the tension when he got quite red on the cheeks.

If he could moan, he could breathe, she thought.

And so his sounds increased in severity and intensity as she contracted her muscles and rode him harder.

He looked down, at her body, watching with a furrowed brow, completely aghast at what was happening.

Then he looked up at the huntress' masked face, and he began squirming as his pitch climbed higher.

Xxxx His eyes started fluttering and he clutched her arm tightly as he wriggled around, struggling without air.

Then it happened; he orgasmed. In a haze of nerves, panic, and ecstatic chemicals, his body went ridged and his chest pushed upwards as a euphoric wave rolled through his nervous system.

He tapped her arm with a hand and she finally let go of his throat.

He immediately took in deep breaths as he moaned loudly, body convulsing.

xxxx

He looked up at the huntress, exhausted, with an expression of complete vulnerability.

Then she started riding him again and he looked down in almost shocked horror as he started moaning involuntarily, struggling to speak amidst the haze of hormones riddling his brain.

"P-please… Oh my god! Please… stop… let me g-go…"

xxxxx

The human lazily brought up one of his hands and tried hitting her abdomen in an effort to get her off. But the hand harmlessly bounced off her tensed abs, and if anything helped spur her along.

He attempted to hit her again but his arms didn't have enough strength in them to raise high enough to reach her.

He continued moaning and pleading, all with a slightly pained, tortured, expression, of forceful pleasure on his face.

"N-no… more p-please… oh my god." He stammered.

She nodded as he spoke, she had nearly reached it.

Keeping in mind his fragility she lightly slapped him on the chest and growled sensually.

"Oh I c-can feel the vibrations!"

She growled again and purred as she increased her pace.

"OH! Please just stop!"

He mumbled.

xxxx

She ran her hands along his chest and he quieted down, no longer being sexually tortured.

His face made a pleasurable expression as sweat glistened on his brow and his bangs fell over his eyes again.

She leaned forward and with one of her nails brushed the dark strands out of the boy's eyes, allowing him to see.

He drunkenly raised a hand towards her face, though obscured by the mask, and she took hold of his hand and placed it on her neck.

He ran his fingertips along her throat and the side of her neck, and felt her strangely cadenced heartbeat.

She leaned down enough that she was practically laying on top of him and he cooed at her enveloping embrace.

He wrapped his arms around her back and reached a hand up to feel her dreadlock tendrils.

"S-so… c-cool." He managed to speak in between breaths.

She clicked her tusks and made the Yautja equivalent of a giggle.

After several minutes of lying together like they were, the huntress slowly raised her torso and prepared to dismount.

The whole while the human watched on eagerly; like a pup hunting hound.

She touched his lip and brought a finger down his chin.

Then she pulled off him and he moaned loudly, still very much sensitive.

xxxxx

Turning around she walked purposefully towards the spring.

Jumping into the water she turned and voicelessly waved her hand, beckoning her human to join her.

The boy struggled to his feet and finished removing his clothes before obediently following her into the water.

She swam towards him and gently cupped either side of his head in her hands.

He looked up into her mask and breathed heavily with his mouth slightly agape. His bright pink tongue and lips aroused her new, curious, fetish for humans.

She had always liked piercings, and she regularly pursued male mates with them, but she hadn't realized that a human male with piercings would also be pleasing to her.

That, in addition to his makeup, demeanour, and dress, all culminated in a very powerful series of new inclinations.

His breathing was still erratic, and she loved it.

His small heart was struggling to supply his body, and he was so physically exhausted he literally couldn't do anything in protest to her.

She had entirely physically dominated him, and now she was pleased with herself at her conquest.

Letting go of his face she now turned and exited the pool of water, making her way to her discarded clothes she dressed and was about to leave when he spoke up.

"W-wait! You're going to, to, leave? A-after all that?"

She turned and watched him struggle to climb the wet rocks out of the spring.

He was able to get close to her and held out his hand towards her.

She reciprocated and took hold of his small thin hand.

Finally she spoke, as best she could, in English;

"I'll, be, here."

With her free hand she made a large circle with her finger in the air.

The human's brow rose in surprise and he nodded.

She then let go of his hand and walked into the jungle, cloaking herself and melting into the shadows.

"Holy… sh-shit."

Shaking the water off his body Jake lent over and gathered his clothes, quickly dressing, and tying his shoes on, minus one sock, though he barely noticed.

When he had gathered himself and picked his iPod back up he set back towards the trail he originally came from, unaware that from the shadows his new friend was intently watching him.

It took a while and when he got back he was even more out of breath than he thought possible, but he made it back to the hotel and his family, in a noticeably better mood than he had been in a very long time.

Before meeting with them however Jake, rushed to find a bathroom where he could wipe off his insanely smudged makeup.

Despite the absolute unbelievable, slash terrifying, ordeal he had just undergone, he was for all intents and purposes giddy with excitement.

Evening had finally fallen and he met up with his family on the hotel restaurant deck.

They had ordered large platters and in an uncharacteristic display Jake eagerly jumped in to eating, and conversation.

His Father and Step-Mother looked at one another, then at Clair. Each of them was surprised at how much more pleasant the boy was to be around now.

They chalked it up to the vacation, and the therapeutic walk Jake must have taken, and the family continued on with their dinner, pleased that Jake was simply in good spirits for the first time in years.

As the night wore on, Jake was certain he could hear a distinct growl come from the underbrush just barely visible from where he sat on the deck's edge.

Looking through the darkness he could see a flickering shape, tall, breasted, dreadlocks, and mask; his 'friend'.

He smiled to himself and wanted to give some kind of signal without anyone noticing, just then the waiter returned to clear the service and Jake's Father stood up to smoke, while the girls announced that they were going up to the room to turn in.

Jake and his Father nodded and then the older of the two spoke; "I'm going to wander on the beach while I smoke," Pausing he raised his hand, "would you like one?"

He offered his son a cigar, and the young man respectfully declined.

"No, that's okay. I'm going to just go for a little walk and then go to bed too."

The man shrugged and went on his way down the stairs towards the surf, while Jake slipped down the side of the deck towards where he saw his alien.

He tried calling out to her quietly, and noiselessly she materialized in front of him.

Surprising him and also reminding him that he was once very, very much, afraid of her.

"H-hey…"

He gulped and looked her over, scarcely believing that she was real, or that they had been so intimate earlier, and also that he was still kind of scared of her.

"So you, understand me r-right?"

She nodded.

"Okay…" he meekly continued. "What's your name?"

"What are you called? W-what are you?"

She cocked her head to the side, regarding him with an expression of disbelief, though he couldn't see it.

"I'm J-Jake." He stammered.

She repeated the name, in her deep, steady, voice.

"Ja-ke"

She then pointed at herself, and sounded her name out in syllable groups, similar to Japanese.

"Tawaya"

Jake repeated it, and his expression once again resembled that of a puppy's when she nodded he had repeated it correctly.

She pointed towards the hotel and spoke, surprisingly well.

"Go, back. Sleep. I will meet, tomorrow."

Jake nodded, and disappointedly turned to head back.

Then he got an idea.

"Hey, I… I want you to have this."

He began to unclip a bracelet of his; it was a piece of band merchandise he had ordered online and he held it out to Tawaya. She accepted the token and she immediately looked on her person for a similar item to trade.

On her wrist she had a small leather band which she had hand made from the hide of game kill; it was intricately weaved from many smaller strips of leather pressed together.

She clipped his bracelet on, and untied her own.

He immediately tied it onto his wrist and he smiled before turning to leave.

"See you tomorrow… Tawaya."

In her own tongue she repeated the sentiment and spoke his name.

The next day Jake woke up in his bed, alone in the suite.

Shirking off the grip of sleep, and the warm embrace of the covers, he stood out of bed and walked toward the balcony.

Sliding the glass door open he stood on the small concrete plateau of the balcony, looking out over the quay that the Hotel was built around.

In the back of his mind he hoped to see a sign of Tawaya somewhere as he looked at the edge of the jungle next to the hotel.

Sighing he turned back towards the room and walked in and headed to the bathroom.

Turning the lights on in the wide full bath and he turned on the shower in the corner of the tiled room.

Waiting for the water to warm he laid out his hair dryer, straightener, and makeup. Out of his small makeup bag he produced his eyelash curler, mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, and small makeup brush. Having left the door slightly ajar he could hear movement in the room.

He furrowed his brow as he listened, trying to determine who it was.

"Clair?"

There was no response, and the noise in the room then stopped.

"Father?" Still nothing,

Finally he spoke his Step-Mother's name, and out of politeness and his good mood from yesterday he tried to not sound like a dick as he did it.

"Diana? Is that you?"

Footsteps made their way to the bathroom door and pushed it open.

His eyes grew wide and he nearly fell over as Tawaya quite literally walked out of thin air, her cloak dissipating and bringing her back into the visible spectrum.

He stammered as he looked at her,

"H-how did you… how the fuck did you get in here?"

She pointed with her head back into the suite and responded, "Patio."

The ridiculousness of how seriously she spoke, in addition with her choice of word made Jake snort and laugh briefly.

"Ok well, my family could come back at any moment, and if they see you they're going to freak."

He waved her in, and tried to encourage her to step all the way into the bathroom so he could shut and lock the door.

Instead she defiantly stood motionless, egging him on to try and move her.

He imagined he could totally hear his family coming back to the room outside in the hall and he overcame his initial apprehension and he got closer to the alien.

Reaching past her he gripped the door handle and pulled it shut, smacking the wood dully against her butt.

She watched him intently as she walked more into the room, taking a seat on the white porcelain toilet.

"Uh… I've got to shower…" Jake eventually said, and Tawaya didn't give any reaction.

He pointed towards the running water and gulped as he pulled his boxers off.

She made a quiet clicking and growling sound as he did.

When he stepped out of the garment and the elastic came off his ankles he picked it up and playfully threw it at her.

With a quick movement she caught the small article of clothing and began examining it.

He opened the shower and entered he began cleaning himself as fast as possible.

After his underwear no longer interested her she began watching him through the steamy glass as he rubbed his lithe, pale, body.

Shampoo was still in his eyes as he turned off the water and exited the glass, slightly disoriented and temporarily blinded he didn't see her stand up and walk towards him.

When he found his towel and wiped the suds from his eyes he made a surprised "oh!" at seeing how close she was now.

She extended her hand and ran her index finger nail along his lips, clicking it on his piercings, and eliciting a small gasp as he opened his mouth.

He brought the towel to his head and started rubbing his hair as she continued touching him, unaware of what he was doing.

Outside the bathroom he heard the suite's door unlock and his eyes widened as he could heard Clair loudly talking. He couldn't hear his parents, and it sounded like she was alone, so she must have been on the phone.

He turned from Tawaya fast enough her nail caught his lip and pulled it slightly.

"Ow!" he quickly shot as he ensured the door was locked.

Beyond the door Clair spoke up, "Jake, hurry up! I want to change into my swimsuit!"

Tawaya had, by now, pressed Jake up against the door and was running her hands along his chest while he still struggled to dry his hair.

"Change… out… there!" He finally croaked out.

"Uh, kind of hard when my suit is in there you jackass."

Looking past Tawaya, he could see his sisters blue, two piece, bikini set lying on the edge of the counter.

Tawaya purred slightly as he struggled against her movements.

He reached for his hair straightener and yelled back towards the door.

"Wear another one! I know you've bought like 5 different ones."

She huffed and swore before walking away from the door.

Facing the mirror Jake attempted to straighten his bangs, and style his hair but was consistently interrupted by Tawaya bumping into him and occasionally gripping his hips.

Her touches became more and more forceful and his heartbeat became faster and excited at her warmth, and proximity.

He finished doing a basic go of his hair with the straight iron before finally giving up trying to do his morning routine.

He gave a surprised, nervous giggle as her fingers ran along his sides, just above his hip bones, the lightness of her touch tickled him slightly and she drew a perverse satisfaction from his sounds.

"W-what do you want?" he asked in a hushed tone, mindful that Clair was still in the room outside.

She relented in her physical domination of him and stepped back, allowing him enough room to turn around.

He was now breathing heavily as she knelt into a crouched position.

"C-Clair?" he called out.

"You still there?"

A few seconds passed and there was no response.

"I think we're alone now."

She nodded at him and he huffed in disbelief at the present situation.


	4. Chapter 4

"Why don't you take off the mask?" the human asked.

In response she shook her head, and clicked her tusks; "Too… Scary… for human" She spoke.

Jake furrowed his brow and took a step forward, "Come on, and if I'm supposed to be standing here naked, the least you could do is show me what you look like."

He reached his hands out to either side of her head and she quickly stood, slightly growling; wordlessly stating a firm 'no'.

Jake instinctually recoiled and raised his hands, "'Kay! Geese, a simple 'no' would have been enough."

He wrapped his towel around his lower body and she growled again slightly at him covering up.

"Yeah well; too bad" He said, a strange spurt of confidence egging him on.

Turning back towards the mirror and counter Jake cocked his eyebrow and drove home his act.

She growled slightly as she observed his coy body language, and he quietly went about applying his makeup.

"You… better not… scream." She spoke.

Bringing her hands to either side of her head she unclipped and began slowly pulling the metal tribal-like mask away from her face.

Jake watched intently in the mirror and then he quickly turned around to face her, having only finished applying his eyeliner to one eye.

His chest heaved up and down in anticipation.

She, tentatively brought the helmet away from her face, and slowly came to see him with her own eyes.

He drew in a sharp breath and his body visibly tensed upon seeing her exposed features.

His eyes were wide and he took a deep breath as he became used to her uncovered head.

Her eyebrow raised and she clicked her tusks together as his looked all over her.

When he stopped to stare right back at her eyes she was impressed he wasn't grovelling in fear, and that he was actually keeping quite calm.

She clipped the mask to the side of her belt and then cocked her head to the side.

* * *

Her face was undeniably strange to say the least, and completely unlike what Jake expected, though he didn't really know what to expect in the first place.

After her mouth the most striking feature was that she didn't have a nose. Around her mouth were four tusked mandibles.

Rather than hair for her eyebrows there were thick quill like barbs, dark in overall colour with light green spots.

Her face was rounded, and overall surprisingly feminine.

Especially her eyes, her sclera were black rather than white and her iris was a light green, with dark, deep, pupils.

On what were her cheeks she had light red spots, giving her the appearance of pseudo blush.

Staring at her features Jake was first scared, to be honest, but then he slowly became interested by her face, and he relaxed enough to lean in slightly as he continued to stare.

She clicked her tusks together and Jake snapped out of it.

"Not that scarred, huh?" he spoke; in response she made a sound like a snort and took a step closer to him.

He backed up so that his butt was pressing against the counter now.

"You find my form…"she paused "pleasing, human?"

Jake's surprise ridden face seemingly entertained her and she began to growl-laugh.

"How bold… you're braver than I first thought."

"Well, appearances are deceiving because I'm still scared to death…" Nervously Jake let out a short laugh before Tawaya stepped closer to him.

"If I was going to hurt you, I would have."

He nodded, "Okay…"

"Finish with your soot, I like it."

Jake turned around and then he repeated in his head what she had just said. 'Wait… soot?'

Shaking his head in confusion he started applying on his other eye and was quickly finished.

"Wait… did you say you liked this?"

Turning to face her he looked right into her eyes.

She nodded, "You're finished now? Yes?"

"We leave this room now" She walked toward the door and was about to grab the handle when Jake spoke up.

"Wait, what if my family comes back? What if somebody walks in?"

She paused, and looked at him with an expression of incredulity, "Lock, door…"

He was about to retort but nothing came out, and he stood leaning against the counter, mouth agape.

She turned the handle and stepped confidently out of the room.

"Woah! Wait!" he cried, as he followed after her.

When he saw her, she was standing holding a pair of his pants. She had grabbed it from his open bag and she curiously looked the black material over in her hands.

Facing away from him, Jake was able to enjoy a relatively good view of her legs, and her bare back. Well she was still wearing the fishnet webbing, so not entirely bare.

The light through the windows and open balcony door gleamed off her skin and beautiful coloured spots.

Just peeking through the segments of her skirt Jake could see her large, round, glutes, tensing and relaxing as she shifted her weight from leg to leg.

Her spots arranged in a symmetrical pattern, like a V, down her legs and they were darker and larger the closer they were to a joint.

Shaking his head to forget her ass, he moved towards the suite's door and clicked the 'DND' sign onto the handle and drew the dead bolt.

After he engaged the heavy lock she stripped off her skirt and pushed his still open bag off his bed.

"Hey! Those were all folded."

She chuckled slightly at his tone and clicked her tusks together.

After her belt and skirt was off she started carefully removing her fishnet webbing, after that she took off her underwear and was completely naked.

She lay down on the bed and started to purr as soon as she settled into the soft sheets.

Jake walked closer towards her, and when was at the end table viewing his phone he noticed her smell, she actually smelled like sweet flowers. Looking her body over as she stretched herself out and closed her eyes Jake could feel his heartbeat begin to increase.

Her abs tensed as she laid back, draping her dreadlock tendrils across the pillow and purring as she closed her eyes.

Checking his phone Jake couldn't believe the message his Father had texted him, apparently he and Diana had gone shopping in the little town down the coast from the hotel.

They weren't to be back for a while, and Clair was down by the pool or beach now, and would probably be there, for the majority of the day.

In essence he'd have the suite all to himself, although not exactly.

Turning to face the large female lying on the bed he had several questions for her.

Finding his voice he spoke up, trying not to stare at her chest's spots and colours.

"So…"

Her striking eyes opened at the sudden sound and she immediately gazed at him intensely.

"What are you?"

She furrowed her brow slightly before repeating the question, putting an extra emphasis on the 'you'.

Jake frowned slightly, "Well.. I'm human, what are you called?"

Clicking her tusks she obligingly spoke, "I am Yautja. We hunt."

Not sure what to do with this new information Jake was at a slight loss as to how to continue.

"Is that why you're here? H-hunting?"

Fear slightly crept back into his chest as he imagined what her hands were capable of even without a knife.

She stopped purring and leaned back up to a sitting position, having realized that he wasn't about to be quiet anytime soon.

"No."

Relieved slightly Jake continued, "So why then are you here? Picking up guys? H-heh."

He laughed nervously as his brief attempt at a joke fell flat on his alien companion.

She shook her head and her dreadlocks made slight rattling noises as they moved.

"So, why then?"

Her breathing was steady and she gave no reaction as she calmly stared Jake down.

Jake wanted to squirm under the heavy gaze of the Amazonian huntress.

Eventually he broke down a bit and started stammering,

"I-it's just, I'm t-trying to understand this all…"

She breathed a little heavier; her body language didn't tell Jake at all what she was possibly thinking.

She was at the moment, impossible to read.

Jake changed his question, at this point he wasn't really expecting nor looking for answers, he was simply thinking out loud, and relieving himself of his overall anxiety as regarded his current situation.

"What were you planning to do, coming here?"

She understood what he meant; and was referring to her literal presence in the room at this moment.

He looked away, having not expected an answer, and hit with a torrent of strange unease.

Drawing his attention back towards her Tawaya spoke,

"I wanted to see you again, little Jake."

He was taken aback slightly and honestly didn't know how to react.

As an innocent, instinctual first reaction he laughed, though it was more of a snicker and spoke in disbelief, "Really?"

She stood up and rose from off the bed.

Taking a step forwards she entered into Jake's personal space she raised one of her hands. With a finger she brushed his fringe to the side; he stood motionless, eagerly expectant, as his breath rapidly increased.

Jake nervously swallowed and noticed his throat had become dry.

He leant back slightly and pointed towards the room's mini-fridge.

"Uh, are you thirsty? Do you drink?"

She began purring again as she watched him walk over towards the small black appliance.

He knelt down and opened the small door. Inside were all the usual complimentary drinks and snacks one would expect; chips, cola, orange juice, et cetera.

Recognizing the bright red Jake smiled slightly before he pulled two cans of Coke off of the plastic six-pack holder.

He turned around to see the Yautja had silently crept up behind him,

"Ah! Jesus, you're quiet for your size…"

She clicked her tusks and chuckled slightly.

Standing back up, he offered a can to her, thinking nothing of the common action.

She regarded the small red cylinder with a perplexed expression.

He raised his brow and moved it slightly; wrapping her large fingers around the small can she made it seem like a miniature prop compared to her.

Eagerly he clicked open his own and took a long sip.

She turned the can over in her hands, before looking back at Jake.

"Open it…" he said, pantomiming the action.

She struggled to fit the edge of her large thumb under the tab of the can, before she finally stopped.

Jake laughed slightly and she immediately shot him a look. Evidentially she did not approve of any sort of laugh derived at her expense.

"I'll help you."

Reaching over Jake clicked the tab and split the top of the can open.

She eyed the small opening with curiosity, watching the small carbonated bubbles rise and pop just barely out the aluminium.

Eventually she raised the can towards her large mandibles and mouth.

She tipped the can slightly and poured a very small amount past her teeth and onto her tongue.

Jake nearly dropped his can and towel as she roared slightly.

Sputtering he exclaimed, "What? Do you not like it?"  
She looked at him wildly, and smacked his shoulder before immediately downing almost the entirety of the tilted can into her mouth.

Finishing the whole coke she shook her head from side to side wildly before letting out another excited roar.

"Y-you like it?"

She knelt down to the fridge and ripped another can off the pack, though she didn't look for Jake's help this time. Impatiently she drove a nail into the top of the can and it responded by spraying coke over her face and into her eyes.

Making a pained groan, she raised the hand that pierced the can to her face and tried to wipe her eyes.

"Oh shit! I bet that stings!" Jake pulled off his towel and tried to wipe her face. In response she growled at him and instead handed him the can, yanking the towel out of his hand.

"Hey, I was just trying to help!"

Turning to the suite's kitchenette he grabbed some napkins to wipe down the can and his hands.

"You're going to get all sticky now, unless you use water."

She looked at him, like a child who had been pranked; apparently embarrassment was a universal emotion.

"Here," he said, before wetting a fresh napkin under the small faucet beside the fridge.

"Like I said, your face is going to get all sticky."

She obligingly took the small white square and she diligently ran it over her face.

Eventually it caught on one of her tusks and a large wet piece of the paper tore off and stuck to the curved bone.

Jake giggled and she immediately pointed a finger at him, 'Stop'

The boy pursed his lips tightly before offering the cleaned can back to her.

She grabbed it and poured it into her mouth just as quickly as the first one. Punctuating the action she crumpled the can after it was emptied.

Turning back towards the bed she gripped her chest before falling to a knee.

Jake rushed towards her and knelt down in concern, "A-are you okay?"

Her eyes were wide as she leaned back up, her features, though alien, displayed the unmistakable expression of panic.

"What's wrong!?"

She gripped her stomach and turned towards Jake before finally she burped, almost right into his face. It reeked of Coke.

Jake's eyes widened and he brought a hand to his mouth in an effort to contain his laughter.

Relief flooded into the huntress' body as the sharp pain in her stomach disappeared as soon as she released the belch.

She smacked his shoulder and lightly pushed him away before standing back up.


	5. Chapter 5

'I thought he had poisoned me! What a vile drink… Who brews something that sweet but with such a painful affect?'

Walking to the bed the Yautja crawled back onto the soft mattress.

"Other than the bubbles, you, uh, like coke? Heh."

The boy was incessant with his voice, like almost all humans. _'_ Far too vocal an animal' she thought.

Being a hunter, and spending so much time alone, stalking, Yautja are fairly silent, subtle, creatures.

Tawaya was no different, and the human's constant speaking, at first endearing, was beginning to grate on her ears.

"So… what do you want? To do, or… like, in general right now?"

She lay down, breathing steadily with her eyes closed, her chest going up and down rhythmically.

She had hoped that her silence would somehow extend to Jake, and render him mute for a few moments.

He audibly moved around the room, and started making dragging noises. He made a little more noises, before she heard a metallic click.

She opened her eyes out of curiosity to see that her human had dressed and was now fully clothed.

Raising her lip in disapproval she growled at seeing him straighten out his shirt.

He looked up and furrowed his brow, "What? I wanted to get dressed…"

She stood again and walked towards him, her body language and her stride showed that she was frustrated.

Stepping backward Jake timidly raised his hands, "W-what are you doing?"

She grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him around with forceful ease.

Wrapping her arms around his waist she lifted him up.

"Ah! W-what?! Put me down!"

She then threw him on the bed and began pulling at his pant legs.

"AH! H-hey!"

Letting go of his pants she brought a hand up to cover his mouth.

Immediately he began making muffled protests.

Now she drew encouragement by such sounds, and her other hand began feeling his abdomen, just above his underwear elastic. At her pressing touch he became silent.

Muffling under her hand he tried pushing against her grip.

Removing her hand from his mouth he immediately turned his head to try and face her, "Wait, there's something I want to ask!"

Leaning over top of him with her hands still on his abdomen, and having a dominant position from which she intended to springboard towards sex she didn't exactly want to relent, or slow down.

But, she did briefly pause, loosening her grip enough for him to roll around to face her.

"Do the males of your species look the same as you?"

She nodded, 'he stopped me for that? What a stupid question.'

"So they have those, uh, mandibles?" He pointed to his own face as he spoke.

She nodded again. 'Where was he going with this?'

"So you don't really do 'oral' then do you?"

She squinted and angled her head in confusion.

He tried to move into a raised position on his knees but she pushed him down effortlessly.

"No, no, I want to try something." He voiced in protest.

Rising again he held out his hands, "Let me get up, and you lie down instead."

She eyed him with suspicion as he rose. Turning, she reluctantly allowed herself to be directed by him.

He directed her to lie back onto the pillows, and he attempted to take the dominant role.

She was about to growl at him when he suddenly lowered his head towards her nude body.

With his small pink mouth he brought it down to her abs and pressed his lips against her, pushing slightly and making a 'smock' sound as he did so.

She didn't quite understand the action, but it was plainly intimate, and let him continue.

He ran his hands along the sides of her chest until he had kissed a trail to her pubic bone, then she looked at him uneasily.

'What is this human doing?'

He looked up and smiled slightly at her expression.

'Wait… he better not!'

xxxx

Now she understood his question.

'Holy shit she smells good…'

Jake had gone down on his girlfriend's many times before, and personally liked doing so, in a perverse way, the wriggling, and the pushing at him, their wild movements, and the eventual climax. It was strangely satisfying for most males, and Jake was no different.

His extremely perverse and brave decision to try cunnilingus on Tawaya was bold though, very bold.

Though he couldn't help but enjoy that he was able to make such a large female moan and relax with such comparatively small movements.

xxxxx

She let go of him and closed her eyes, satisfied with her first ever experience of oral sex.

Jake crawled along the bed until he was now lying beside her, wrapping his legs around hers and pressing his body into hers. She didn't notice what he was doing at first, and she only opened her eyes after he pressed his head into her chest.

For Jake he had curled up and buried himself into what a human would call a cuddle. For the Yautja however it was an entirely new display of affection.

And out of a genuine surprise and apprehension Tawaya spoke, "What are you doing?"

Jake turned his head and body so he could look at her, his brow was furrowed, and his eyes were plainly disappointed, her tone sounded much harsher than she realized.

"I w-was cuddling? Uh, you, you don't like it?"

She was surprised, his expression actually made her feel bad, and he looked as if she had heavily scolded him.

"What is 'cudding'?" she asked, mispronouncing the 'l'.

"Cuddling is where, uh, basically you and a partner get really close after doing stuff like, uh what I just did."

She nodded, and thought before responding, "We Yautja do not do such things."

"Oh…"

Jake looked down at himself as he moved into a sitting position.

"You may continue, if you so desire."

Jake looked up and towards the window.

"Nah, I don't want to make it weird or anything."

She looked at his face, and the sunlight made his eyes a brilliant light blue.

To herself she admitted that she quite liked her human pet.

She raised a hand and ran her thumb over his lips and piercings.

"Did these hurt?"

He looked back down at her, with the same expression of flattered pride that anyone has when someone takes an interest in their appearance by asking them such a question.

"Ha, no. Well actually this one did," he pointed to one of the two lip rings, "but the other and my eyebrow didn't that much. Although I thought my eyebrow had gotten infected this one time and it scared me really bad…"

He was speaking quickly and he stopped, embarrassed, when he saw Tawaya's expression.

"You speak much."

Jake brushed his bangs nervously, "Yeah, I guess I do…"

She lent upwards and surprised Jake.

"Cudding, this is an intimate practise for humans?"

Jake nodded, "Yeah, pretty much." He visibly resisted the urge to correct her pronunciation again.

"We Yautja like to fight."

Jakes eyes widened and his expression changed as she moved her body, like a cat's, reading to lunge at him.

She smiled and the corners of her eyes crinkled as she had a playful expression across her features.

He yelped and play screamed excitedly as he tried to turn and get off the bed.

She wrapped her arms around his chest and she forced her body weight onto him, flattening him into the mattress.

She pinned his legs, and she forced her shins into the back of his knees, restricting his movement. With her arms she continued to hold his chest tightly, and using her size and weight she easily froze him in place under her.

He squirmed and played along briefly, until she lowered her mandibles and mouth onto the edge of his shoulder.

Lightly she began biting him, "What! Hey! ... S-stop that…"

He cooed at her light nibbles and he stopped moving under her.

She started testing how hard she could bite into him, and pushed her teeth in a little harder.

He made a similar "ooh" sound, and she tried again.

Digging her teeth into his skin she remarked at how skinny he was, and his thin skin seemed like it could easily be bitten through.

He took a sharp breath and held it in silently, as she pulled with her teeth.

She let go and moved her body so as to begin biting his back.

From his shoulder downwards she dragged her sharp tusks and bit him, hard.

His breathing was laboured and eventually he cried out in pain.

"Ah! T-that hurts!"

Letting go of his skin she rose up enough to roll him over underneath her.

His chest was moving up and down erratically.

She lowered her teeth towards him and he brought his hands up to feel her dreadlock tendrils.

Spreading her mandibles she bit down under his pec and along his ribs. At the same time as biting him she dug her nails into his skin and ran them downwards.

He let out a pained muffled scream; he had covered his own mouth and was keeping his eyes tightly shut.

When she released him from her mouth there was a large oval welt and sharp teeth marks making purple indents into his white skin.

Where she had dragged her nails there were long bright red scratch marks, and in some places, she had slightly cut his skin enough that there was light specks of blood.

"T-that, really, hurt."

She leaned back up and looked down at her human; he was wincing and panting heavily.

He ran his fingers down the red marks on his chest and hissed quietly at the pain.

"I'm surprised."

Jake furrowed his brow while still maintain a pained expression, "At what?"

"You didn't scream as much as anticipated."

"Ha, well, I like biting and stuff but Jesus, your teeth and nails are sharp!"

She was surprised, "You like biting? Is this, typical?"

"Ha, not really" He winced and shuffled under her. "But I don't think there's a lot I like that's typical."

He wiped his chest and mumbled another "Ow…" before looking back up at her.

"So, what, was that for?"

She sat backwards from him, "Marking you."

"Uh, what?" He nervously laughed.

She shook her head and made a low laugh.

Jake leaned back up to a sitting position, tentatively he moved towards her.

She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side.

Finally lunging forward Jake awkwardly tried to bite her shoulder back.

His teeth took hold of her skin and he tried to maintain a grip.

Her reaction was completely unfazed, in response Jake dug his teeth in as tightly as he could.

He went past the point he thought was going to hurt her and she still didn't have a reaction.

He looked upwards at her and she smiled back at him.

"Little Jake, you're going to hurt yourself."

He let go, and regarded her with uneasy surprise.

"H-how… do you not feel pain?"

She clicked her tusks and laughed lightly.

"Lie down, little Jake."

Though he didn't really want to, he complied, leaning his head against one of her thighs.

Several minutes went by of silence, and Jake had become quite comfortable against Tawaya.

Her deep breathing was loud, but oddly soothing, and added to Jake's calm demeanour.

She brought a hand to rest on his head and her fingers playfully ran through his hair.

He smirked and made a noise of disbelief, before whispering under his breath to himself, "fuck this is weird…"

Eventually she stopped moving her fingers and her breathing became quieter.

Jake moved just enough to see her face, her eyes were closed and she seemed to have actually fallen asleep.

"W-what? How?" he whispered in surprise. "Meh, oh well."

Lying back down he sighed as he looked up at the ceiling.

Then, in the silence of the hotel room, his stomach audibly groaned.

Looking over at the service phone on the end table, beside their bed, Jake quickly began thinking about the best part of being in a hotel; room service.


	6. Chapter 6

"… And so that will be charged to the room's bill to be paid at checkout. Is that alright?"

Jake nodded as he looked over the menu again.

Semi distractedly he mumbled into the telephone "Thank you, that'll be fine."

"Thank you very much Sir; your order will arrive to your room shortly. As a reminder gratuity is not necessary."

"Roger that, thank you again."

Hanging up the phone Jake then threw the menu back into the end table drawer.

"So, can I put my shirt back on now?"

Jake looked at Tawaya who was lounging on the bed resting her head in her hand as she stared at her new young lover.

She clicked her tusks together as she looked his chest over, one more time. Begrudgingly she finally spoke, "You may."

Jake laughed, though it was more of a giggle and a snort, a surprising sound which endeared him even further to the huntress.

"Thanks, I think it would have been kind-a weird answering the door with, uh, these!"

He punctuated the sentence by pointing at the bite and scratch marks, which even after several minutes had shown no sign of going away.

Bending down Jake picked up his shirt and was throwing it over his head when she raised her foot and fit a toe into one of his belt loops. Pushing and pulling him easily with her spotted leg he giggled again.

"Stop, ha!" straightening his shirt out Jake turned to try and grab her calf.

On the end table his phone buzzed audibly.

Looking over at the device Tawaya changed positions and extended her arm to pick up the small black rectangle.

She looked it over briefly before hanging it to Jake.

"Thanks." Taking it he clicked open the screen and began reading, his lips moving slightly as his eyes went over the small lines of text.

He walked towards Tawaya and sat down in her lap; surprisingly he maneuvered and had good situational awareness and peripheral vision despite being focused on the small screen.

Leaning backwards into her chest he clicked away with his thumbs.

After a 'swish' sound he clicked the top of the phone and looked up into Tawaya's face.

"You know." He stopped and brought a hand up to rub along her cheek.

"You're not that scary looking."

She raised an eyebrow and responded with an incredulous tone.

"I recall you falling over repeatedly as you tried to get away from me."

"Well! Could you blame me? How about I sneak up on you while you're sleeping!"

She scoffed, "You could never sneak up on me."

Furrowing his brow Jake made a fake pout, and acted impetuously. "Fine then…"

She tilted her head and furrowed her brow, clearly having not understood he was joking.

"Oh, whoops. Sorry, I should keep in mind you wouldn't get my sense of humor."

She shook her head, clicking her tusks and lightly laughing.

"You are a strange one."

He tried playfully pushing her arm as he responded. "What? I'm the weird one? At least I don't sneak up on boys and…"

A knock on the door cut him off midsentence.

The two of them immediately eyed the door with suspicion.

Then they looked back at each other, "food's not due for at least, like, twenty minutes?"

She gave the Yautja equivalent of a shrug.

Stepping off the bed Jake made his way towards the entrance of the room.

"Hello?"

Outside he heard the electronic 'beep' of the lock, the door opened and unceremoniously crashed due to the dead bolt having been fastened.

"What the fuck Jake!"

It was Clair. Panic welled in Jakes chest as he ran to the door.

"You threw on the D and D and the deadbolt? You better not be using the goddamn TV for porn."

Arriving at the door, he appeared in the crack and beamed a sarcastic smile at his sister.

"Yeah sure thing, I'm totally beating off in here."

She rolled her eyes, "Whatever, open the door please."

Jake looked back into the room momentarily before reluctantly complying.

Tawaya was gone.

When the door opened Clair pushed past her brother and made her way towards her luggage.

She was wearing the blue bikini from earlier and had since developed a very light tan.

Her flip flops clicked along with each step as she walked.

Jake looked wildly around the room trying to see where Tawaya could have possibly gone.

Nervously he tried to keep the attention on him,

"I ordered some room service, but I didn't know you'd be back so, I uh, didn't get you anything."

Clair was now less hostile than before and responded without any kind of a tone, "That's fine, I'm hanging out with some friends and we're eating down there."

"Whoa, wait 'friends'? Who? We've been here like two days, not even and you've already got a lunch club?"

At this she immediately became defensive.

"It's some other people on vacation my age, God!"

She rooted around in her bag for something, eventually pulling out her wallet.

"All girls or boys?" Jake put his hands on his hips; he started taking a mature tone of voice.

"A few of both, the fuck do you care?" Clair shot him a look of suspicion.

"I care because you're my little sister!"

She rolled her eyes again and crinkled her nose, "Jake, I'm two years younger than you!"

Jake subconsciously puffed out his chest, "So! You're still younger, and _my sister!_ "

"Gah, get out of the way Jake." She put her sunglasses back on and pushed past her brother easily.

After the room door closed with a dull click Tawaya stepped out of the large closet beside the bathroom door, clutching her mask, belt, and fishnet.

Jake looked perturbed, and he had shrunken forward, defeated. His shoulders and back angled forwards and his long hair covered his face.

Tawaya threw her stuff on Jakes bed and walked up beside him.

"Your kin?" She asked rhetorically.

He turned away from the door and took a breath.

"Yeah"

Looking up back at Tawaya he spoke with a tired voice, "She makes poor decisions and like, I just don't want her to do anything stupid."

Tawaya nodded, and he continued "But God damn she can be a bitch sometimes!"

Tawaya nodded again before responding in a similar tone,

"One of my brothers tried to kill me."

Jake's eyes widened in surprise, "what?!"

Tawaya shrugged, "I took one of his eyes to remind him his place." She paused as Jake's eyes grew even wider. "He never tried again."

"You, uh… fight often with family?"

She started to shake her head but stopped. "It depends."

"Ha! On what?" he asked.

"Sometimes you fight to measure strength and because it's been long since you saw each other. Other times you fight for respect and place. An insult cannot go unpunished, and a challenge must always be responded to."

She punctuated her speech by aggressively pointing her finger at the ground triumphantly.

Jake nodded, "Well… uh I wouldn't want to face you. Ha."

She beamed at him, and she enjoyed the praise.

"So do you have many siblings?"

The amazon nodded proudly, "My mother sired seventeen pups to trial-hood."

Jake relocked the deadbolt, and turned around with his mouth agape, "Seventeen!?"

"Yes, I was third-born and first female."

Jake's brow furrowed, "Uh, what's trial-hood?"

"To become recognized as an adult, a Yautja must pass trials set out by the clan. Only then will you be recognized as having honour."

"Oh, huh" Jake nodded as he listened on, sitting down in a chair opposite the kitchenette in the entranceway of the room. "Weird… but like, cool." He continued.

Tawaya didn't realize talking about her people could be so strangely fun.

"For example, my trial consisted of a mighty hunt, alone, with no weapons."

She pointed at the bracelet she had given Jake the previous night, "that was one of the many things I made from my kill."

Jake looked at the leather with a sense of reverence, "That's so… wow, you didn't have to-"

She raised a hand and cut him off, "I chose to give you it. And I stand by my choice."

Jake smiled, and she couldn't help but feel warmness in her chest at his expression.

"My mother was a strong huntress, and she commands much respect." Turning towards the balcony Tawaya looked out at the blue surf.

"She's strong, and I look to the day I will best her name and legacy."

"That's cool… I, uh, don't really get to see my mother."

Tawaya turned, "I saw her? Was she not the female your clan was with last night?"

Jake shook his head and laughed slightly at hearing her say clan instead of family.

"She's my Step-Mother," Tawaya cocked her head, unfamiliar with the term. "My father remarried."

Tawaya contorted her face, repulsed, "Was it an issue of honour?!"

"Uh, I don't really know, my father never talks about it, and I learned a long time ago to never ask."

Tawaya's expression softened. "Does your father command respect? He must, having two mates, for a human."

Jake laughed uncomfortably, "I guess, he's a vice-president of a company and has calls and meetings with people all over the world. A lot of people are scared of him; I guess I am too… kind of."

Tawaya nodded, "This is good! I was scared of my father too, but he taught me much. He showed me how to fell a Simba in single combat!"

"What? A Simba?" He shook his head, as he thought 'like, Lion King? Simba?'

Tawaya shook her head, "It's a mighty creature, thick mane, large teeth, and golden colour."

"A lion?" Jake asked

She nodded, "Yes! Lion, Simba; strong, beautiful, creature, very challenging hunt"

He smiled at how excited she got reminiscing.

"Anyway, do you fight little Jake?"

He shook his head, "Not really, I used to try and get into fights over stupid shit but, no not really."

Tawaya shook her head in disappointment, "All males must fight! That is how you attract mates. Gain respect!"

She flexed her arm and made a tight fist.

Laughing Jake shook his head, "Ha! You think that would work for me?"

Tawaya walked closer to the sitting human smiling, "yes! Of course, and scars too! Scars, piercings, they signal strength to females. If you strong, your children will be too."

She looked down at him and noticed a large, barely faded, deep, white line, along the middle of Jakes left wrist.

Pointing it out, she then exclaimed, "Ah! See a scar; it's a badge of respect!"

Jake's expression changed and he immediately covered his forearm. His whole body language changed and he deliberately avoided her gaze.

Her playful mood and the jovial atmosphere of the room immediately shifted.

"Why do you cover yourself, little Jake?"

Slowly Jake looked back up at her, "This isn't from a fight."

Tawaya furrowed her brow, "An accident then?"

Jake bit his tongue and visibly moved uncomfortably. It didn't take more than a few seconds for Tawaya to recognise shame.

Deep shame oozed off of him.

He looked up at her as her expression changed; she realized what it was just like every human who saw it closely enough.

She spoke in a stern voice, "Why?"

Jake was silent, and she continued, "Was it a matter of honour? Had you disgraced your name?"

Jake looked up helplessly, and stammered, "I-I, was…"

He took a breath and calmed himself, "I was very sick, and I thought it would have helped, or that it was going to help..."

Tawaya lowered herself so she was eye level with him.

Jake shook his head and breathed out, "I was wrong, and it was stupid and I…"

He looked down before continuing, "I found out I really didn't want to die."

Tawaya watched him carefully as he continued, "My father, he uh… He found me and…"

Jake stopped before taking another deep breath, "well, we haven't been able to talk since."

* * *

Breathing heavily Jake watched Tawaya, embarrassed, shamed, and uncomfortable.

She spoke, "It is not good to go silent with your father, now, and you owe him your life twice over."

Jake nodded reluctantly, "I know I just…"

Tawaya shook her head, "No 'just-ing' you must regain your honour."

Pursing his lips Jake thought, 'Great now I'm getting lectured by an alien too.'

"Well I-"

Cutting him off again was another knock at the door. He sighed dejectedly.

After the loud knock a muffled voice announced; "Room-service Sir!"

Tawaya backed up and Jake stood from the chair. Striding towards the door he removed the lock and slowly opened the thick wooden door.

A Hispanic woman greeted Jake and smiled as she confirmed the order; "One Porterhouse meal, one seafood linguini, and a bottle of the house white."

Jake changed his disposition at the presence of food and nodded eagerly, "yeah that is correct,"

Standing outside the door awkwardly, the attendant continued, "Would you like me to wheel the tray into the room sir?"

Jake looked back into the room at Tawaya, she was still nude, and was holding up one of Clair's comically small bikini tops across her chest.

"Uh, no that's okay, I'll manage."

The attendant bowed her head slightly and smiled, "Very good Sir."

She turned to leave but Jake called out, "wait, here."

He held out a few bills of the local currency.

Growing up the way Jake had, he enjoyed the luxury of being handed hundreds of dollars from his father regularly to do with as he pleased. Usually this was expended on frivolous things, and on absurd tips.

The woman regarded the money with surprise and leaned inwards, "Um, Sir, are you sure? That is a very large gratuity."

He smiled slightly, "Just tell me I'm pretty." He said jokingly, she took the bills and bowed again smiling.

"Is there anything else I may do for you Sir?"

Jake shook his head and grabbed hold of the serving tray.

She bowed again before turning and walking back down the hall towards the elevator.

"Actually!" he announced, she stopped abruptly and turned, "There is."

She looked at him intently, "Can you inform me where my sister is? And, who she's with?"

The attendant nodded, and he continued; "She's wearing a bright blue bikini, she's white, and has blondish hair, about this tall."

She took in all the details and responded, "I'll telephone the room as soon as I see her Sir."

Jake nodded, "Thanks."

Upon wheeling the tray into the room Tawaya eyed the silver domes adorning the tray with suspicion.

Lifting the silver covers off, Jake smiled as he watched his alien companion. Tawaya opened her mouth and was eagerly clicking her tusks together.

He pointed to either meal and announced what they were;

"So that there is the porterhouse steak, the one you pointed at on the menu,"

She nodded happily.

"The description sounded good on the menu, and for 70 dollars it ought to be, heh. This is my seafood linguini; you can have some of it if you're still hungry though, I don't mind."

Beside the plates were laid out knives and forks, Tawaya looked at the utensils oddly before she endeavoured to try and use them.

Jake gave a brief smile as he grabbed the wine bottle. Twisting the corkscrew in a little deeper he then started pulling the stopper out.

He smelt the wine and made a slight frown, "not too bad. Do you drink alcohol?"

Having discarded the steak knife and fork Tawaya was now holding the steak and ripping pieces off with her sharp teeth as she nodded.

Jake smiled at her and poured a bit into his and her glasses which still sat on the tray.

"Best let it breathe though; it seemed quite bubbly for a white wine…"

She shook her head while swallowing a large chunk of meat, then after grabbing hold of the diminutive glass she tilted her head back and poured it into her mouth.

She swallowed and growled satisfactorily. "Ah! That is a familiar taste! Good choice little Jake."

He smiled and shook his head as he refilled her glass.

"Just don't drink it all, I'd probably get in shit for finishing a bottle of wine by myself."

Picking up his fork Jake started skilfully twirling the noodles around it, much to Tawaya's interest.


	7. Chapter 7

"Thank you for your call"

Jake placed the phone back into the receiver as he uneasily pondered the information that the attendant had relayed back to him, as per his earlier request.

His sister was hanging out with a group of teens, some from the 'States, some from Europe, but they had taken up residence on the 'party patio' a section of the restaurant deck which stepped down immediately to the beach.

The reason why it was referred to as the 'party' patio was due to the full bar which was covered by a permanent awning. They had collectively incurred a very significant tab, and the Attendant relayed that the bar was now sending regular runners to restock from the interior lounge's stores.

The Attendant had expressed that while she was drinking Clair was still acting responsibly, if compared against the majority of the teens.

Rich, hedonistic, privileged, little shits, on summer break.

'They're probably making a huge racket…' Jake thought.

But there wasn't anything yet to be concerned about, his sister was ok, and not acting too wild.

With that worry slightly alleviated he looked back to his own 'problem', the Yautja.

She was standing in front of the balcony window stretching her arms out; the performance she was doing looked like she was doing yoga.

Her muscles rippled as she went slowly from one position to another.

Twisting her body, she purred as she tensed.

Bending over, her dreadlocks one by one fell to either side of her head with an audible series of clicking.

She parted her legs slightly as she continued bending forwards.

Between her ass cheeks the curved bump of her vagina became more visible as she bent lower with her torso, arms extended towards the ground.

Jake stood watching.

That awkward excitement welled in his chest as his heartbeat increased.

Viewing her naked body Jake never realized, until now, that he had a fitness fetish, or at the least an attraction to muscles on a girl, or more accurately a fit-chick.

But in looking at the rippling naked Yautja he was definitely certain he had such a fetish now.

She spread her legs a little more as she leaned back up. She was lowering into almost a split like position now.

Jake just watched on, explicit thoughts ran through his mind and he brought a hand up to his lips. He touched them lightly as he recalled the taste of her pussy.

The thought of how he had given her head in conjunction with watching her spotted backside move and tense was giving him a hard on.

The worry, and series of things he was concerned about and thinking earlier had completely dissipated.

There was only a rising feeling; the uneasiness of a desire, and the uncertainty of acting or not acting.

'I could probably reach her before she moved…' He thought.

She was in 'perfect position', from where he stood.

The very scene that he wanted to enact he'd seen in several similarly styled pornos.

'Chick is doing yoga, or exercises then her male instructor, or a female companion, or a male companion… either way the point is someone would come up and begin touching or fucking the girl.'

Jake was almost giddy at the prospect of being able to actually live out the fantasy.

From that thought his mind spring-boarded, as it often does, into all the new possibilities that come with having actually found a sexual partner.

Looking down at his skinny jeans Jake unzipped his pants and unclipped his belt, but not enough that they'd start slipping off him as he walked.

Tentatively he moved forward, testing to see if Tawaya was going to stop, or react to his movement by turning around.

Though, to his delight, she gave no indication she intended to move, or that she even noticed him behind her.

He took a breath and pounced, 'Whew, okay, here goes…'

Jake moved quickly, and before she visibly reacted he stepped closely behind her and pulled his pants and boxers down.

xxxx

She leaned her hands forward to grab the handle of the balcony's glass door.

In response to his advance she spoke. Her voice was pleasant, and soothing, affirming that she was approving of his actions; "Bold, little Jake, very bold."

The tone was not only surprised, but it naturally encouraged him on.

It made a pseudo imposition that he was now not only obligated to continue, but that she was expectantly anticipating his coming performance.

At this idea his heartbeat grew so loud and heavy that he could feel it in his throat and neck.

He opened his mouth to speak but the only sound that managed to come out was a high grunt.

She turned her head to observe the boy, expectantly she watched him grab hold of his member and point it towards her entrance.

"Here," she said, "I shall help you."

Xxxx

(Smut scene was here)

He nodded, "the sink in the, the little kitchen. Or like… whew, hang on."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "There's also the bathroom, and you could, sh-shower if you wanted."

She nodded and stood up, walking towards the small kitchen at first but stopping when she was beside the bathroom door.

She cocked her head to the side before choosing the option to shower.

It'd been a while since she'd bathed indoors, she'd dipped into the spring yesterday and that was thoroughly enjoyable. But soap, temperature control, security, and comfort of a shower was too good to pass up.

A shower was a welcome luxury, and she intended to lounge and soak her body.

Pushing the bathroom door open and stepping towards the shower unit out of view of Jake she could hear him remark to himself, "Well… I don't blame you, I'd shower too if I could get up."

He laughed, his voice was a nice sound, and Tawaya confessed to herself, 'he's grating when he doesn't shut up, but… I think I really like my little human.'

Turning the knob of the shower on with her clean hand Tawaya clicked her tusks together, smiling and laughing to herself.

"Jake…" she spoke in a low tone.

She shook her head, before walking into the glass enclosure of the shower.


	8. Chapter 8

The sound of the running water in the shower was occasionally interrupted by a large splash as Tawaya cupped her hands and threw water over herself.

After redressing Jake briefly poked his head into the bathroom to watch his companion.

The steam had obscured the majority of the glass and so the only part of the alien girl he could see was her legs and calves.

For several minutes Jake enjoyed a view of the huntress in a way that few if any ever had, she was completely unaware of his presence.

She was enjoying the warmth of the water and focusing only on her thoughts. The sound of the water reverberating off the glass was deafening to the minute sounds of movement Jake was making. He moved slowly, and his socked feet made no sound on the tiled floor.

All these factors culminated in his noiseless entry into the room.

Tilting her head to the side and turning her body to let the water fall on her back Tawaya then turned again, as if she were swaying to music, when she did she saw that she had an audience.

Through the fogged glass all she saw was a dark shape looming in the doorframe and for a vivid moment Tawaya was startled.

Naked, wet, weaponless, and surprised, Tawaya's heart jumped and she made a sharp noise, like a yelp or a 'yeep'.

The noise of surprise made Jake shudder momentarily in reaction.

Then she laughed, she clicked her tusks and let out a low steady laugh in disbelief.

Reaching for the shower door's handle she drew back the glass partition and beamed a smile at Jake,

"Little Jake, you actually snuck up on me…"

He cocked his smile to a side and was about to apologise when she continued, "I must say you're the first to ever have accomplished such a feat."

Jake made a snort and giggled, and proceeded to offer a light-hearted apology.

"Sorry, ha, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

She nodded before turning the shower knob off.

Shaking her body she threw drops of water around her in a circle, shaking her legs out as well she stepped out of the shower unit and onto the small bathmat in front of the glass door.

Jake moved more into the room and grabbed a towel off the rack beside the shower.

He unrolled and straightened the fabric out and proceeded to dry Tawaya off.

Initially she thought he was going to hand it to her, 'I'm more than capable of doing it myself!'

But he bent down obligingly, rubbing the towel along her back, down her body to her legs, caressing her skin occasionally; adding a level of intimacy to the act.

He had focused his eyes on her body, and payed careful attention to his task.

Rubbing her flesh firmly, he wiped each minute speckle of water that he could see.

She… liked it.

She was growing a more and more intimate affection towards her human. More so than any mate she'd previously had.

In her inner monologue she remarked at how peculiar such feelings truly were. How, alien, they were.

Interrupting her thoughts Jake spoke in the quiet of the moment.

"How are you so…?" Jake paused.

Looking down at him Tawaya raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

He looked up at her, he was in a crouched semi-kneeling position, and continued.

"Fit? Like… strong, I mean."

She parted her mandibles and let out a callous, quick, response.

"How are you so weak, for a human?"

Jake's expression fell.

His question was said in adoration, or perhaps more accurately idolization, but he was speaking honestly.

In response her tone and the way she had spoken was surprisingly hurtful.

He stopped moving his hands with the towel and looked away, trying to speak, but his tongue twisted in his jaw and refused to cooperate as he attempted to articulate a response.

Tawaya noticed the drop in his demeanour, in his face, and in the atmosphere.

She repeated what she said in her head and realized the ways that it could have been taken.

Lowering to a crouch so she was level with Jake she spoke,

"That was not what I intended to mean, Little Jake."

He nodded, he had quickly recomposed himself, and wordlessly he offered her the towel. He avoided her eyes and looked towards the floor.

"Its fine, I'm going to go get a drink…"

She took the towel and he quickly stood and walked out of the room.

Tawaya looked after him, 'What do I say now?' she thought.

'What… what did I really do? I don't understand…'

Tawaya slowly stood back up as her mind continued to analyze what her Jake was potentially thinking.

* * *

Pushing a straw into an orange juice-box Jake attempted to assuage his inner monologue as he sat in the corner of the suite.

'Dude… she's right, you are fuckin weak, why do you give a shit?'

Shaking his head he took a couple sips as another part of him responded,

'Shut up! It hurt… Maybe she didn't mean it like that… But...'

Exhaling he exclaimed in frustration before rubbing his forehead.

'Christ! You're overreacting and this is stupid! Just… like, ignore it or something… Fuck.'

He looked up and continued his drink.

'Maybe it's the hormones, the sex… the fucking weirdness of this all?'

Shaking his shoulders he settled on that explanation and retreated to the sugary solace of the orange juice.

Having collected her-self and deciding on a course of action Tawaya opened the bathroom door and eyed him.

He deliberately decided to 'not notice' her entry back into the suite.

Walking from the bathroom Tawaya had a purposeful stride and confidently made her way directly towards him.

Making her way across the room she locked eyes with him and didn't avert her gaze.

Jake was momentarily petrified as he waited for her to stop.

When she was in front of him she lowered to one knee and bowed her head.

Looking back up to face him she spoke, "I am sorry."

Jake's brow and features were raised in surprise and he opened his mouth to respond, quickly he attempted, as best he could, to play off the event.

"No, no you were right… But it's not a big deal, I…" he begrudgingly admitted a genuine fault, "I overreact sometimes…"

Her features were stoic, and when he finished she remained kneeling.

A mandible raised in semi-disgust.

Then she stood.

Jake became slightly fearful; his words seemed to have agitated her.

Tawaya began dressing, pulling her net on, her underwear, and re-clipping her belt. She pointed towards the still sitting Jake and spoke.

"You are weak, even for a human Jake…"

She was filled with a tone of disgust. Jake's eyes were wide and his heart was now on the edge of the proverbial 'drop'.

Then her tone changed and she lowered back to a crouch, "But you are _my_ Little Jake."

Leaning forwards she began getting closer to Jake's face. "And I shall _make_ you strong."

Jake's heart was now confused, his head was confused, and his face was confused.

Out of habit, and out of this confusion, he immediately retorted with a surprised and dumbfounded, "What?!"

As quickly as she leaned inwards she recoiled and jumped into a stand.

"Come Jake! We are going…"

Jake could only repeat the earlier 'what' with a greater level of distress and heightened apprehension.

Tawaya grabbed hold of Jakes hand, the one that wasn't holding his drink, and she pulled him from the chair with startling ease.

Once on his feet Jake exclaimed in protest "W-Where are we going?!"

Tawaya was speedily walking towards the balcony and Jake's eyes widened in panic, 'She… she's not going to do what I think she's going to do!"

After going through the open balcony door Tawaya turned and wrapped her arm around Jake's waist.

Jake was panicked, "The fuck are you doing!"

She laughed and held him tightly to her body, "Hang on Little Jake."

Then she leapt, like a cat, effortlessly over the railing.

Stifling a scream Jake yelled, "OH MY GOD!" as he wrapped his arms and legs as tightly around Tawaya's torso as possible.

With her free hand she grabbed hold of the railing and began descaling the building, like a rock climber who had done this trail dozens of times.

Jake had buried his face into her shoulder and clung like a monkey or a bush baby, though unlike those animals he was shaking uncontrollably.

Even with only one free hand, Tawaya was able to speedily maneuver down the successive balconies.

Jake had taken up mumbling a mantra as he clung along for dear life, "This isn't real, this isn't real, you'll make it, and you'll make it."

They weren't that high and the climbing wasn't that unrealistic, and so within a few short moments the Yautja had reached the ground floor of the building.

Tawaya landed softly onto the mulch of a flowerbed, and she looked at her passenger, smiling sadistically.

His face was buried deeply into her body and he shook like a leaf as he clutched her.

To get his attention she leaned to his ear and softly spoke,

"Jake"

He looked upwards at her hesitantly.

"You may let go now."

Slowly he looked to either side, exhaling in complete relief to see ground.

He retracted his embrace from Tawaya and firmly planted his feet on the earth.

Staggering backwards from her he steadily regained his composure and stance.

When he was calmed down and okay he looked up at Tawaya and boyishly wanted to hit her.

"Don't ever do that again!"

She clicked her tusks and laughed, and he exclaimed

"I hate heights, I fucking hate them…"

She nodded, and raised her hand, "Okay Little Jake."

Adjusting his pants and shirt Jake begrudgingly continued, "Ok… We're out of the room now."

Looking up at her he shrugged his shoulders in the irritation he typically reserved for his parents, and sister, "Now what?"

Before moving Tawaya looked to either side, to the left was a high privacy wall, blocking the beach from view. To the right was a grassy clearing before the open air hotel parking lot. In front of them was a small footpath towards the jungle.

Fortuitously there was not another soul to be seen. Having decided to dart for the canopy of the jungle Tawaya took Jake's hand and began running.

Being pulled along Jake struggled not stepping on her heels as he kept pace.

In both concern and genuine curiosity Jake exclaimed, "Ah! Where are we going?!"

"Just keep up Little Jake!" was all she said, and then she laughed loudly as they entered under the dark canopy.

Jake was looking around wildly, concerned in the same way as Tawaya, seeing if anyone was looking at the fast moving, asymmetrical, hand-holding couple.

When they crossed over the underbrush and began moving along the trail which cut through the foliage Jake was relieved that they weren't under threat of being seen, but he was still stressed and apprehensive over just what Tawaya was planning by dragging him, literally, out here.

After several yards her grip had loosened and was now not as tight as it was.

It was still firm, but less ridged now, somehow it had become tender.

Tawaya slowed her pace now and the two of them were walking together up the trail as the ground began to incline.

The amount of walking they had now done, coupled with the uphill direction was beginning to tire the boy.

Jake was a little out of breath, but he didn't get too bothered by it, he was encouraged by the presence of his companion.

He wasn't alone on this hike.

As she led him along, further from the hotel, the sounds of the surf, and the hum of civilization, he felt strangely interested.

Earlier he had feelings of irritation; he was comfortable where he was and so on and didn't like being dragged out and scared.

But now, he was excited.

He was curious as to where she was leading him; where they were going, what she was planning, and what she meant when she said what she said before jumping out of the suite.

To be honest though, in the weirdest way he'd been smitten, he cared, but at the same time didn't want to rush anything. It was new, it was different, and he was going along with it.

Whatever was to happen next, he was looking forward to it.


	9. Chapter 9

"Jake… if you step on my heel one more time, I will hurt you."

To accentuate her aggravation she punctuated the latter half of her sentence by pausing after each word.

The pair was no longer holding hands and Jake had been keeping tabs on his phone, monitoring the time.

They'd been walking for almost an hour.

Jake's hair had deflated from the humidity and his sweat, and his shirt stuck to his back and chest irritatingly. Both the front and back were nearly soaked through.

He was panting and had leaned forwards into a curved hunch as he attempted to keep up with Tawaya.

In reaction to her exclamation he breathlessly tried to profess an apology, as inoffensively as possible.

"S-Sorry… the rocks, t-the dirt… it, It's hard to walk… to walk on."

His heels had dug into the backs of his shoes and the worn interior of his Converse had made the backs of both feet raw.

He was trying to keep pace and he was desperately trying not to fall over.

Ten minutes into their jaunt and he'd gotten a stitch in his side, and now thirty minutes later it had spread across his abdomen.

Each breath was laboured, and tasted like he had blood at the back of his throat.

Tawaya had earlier spoken to him telling him something about the 'silence of the world around them' and 'the energy flow of life'.

It was esoteric, and sounded very oriental, almost Buddha-like.

But at the same time Jake knew that it more or less meant 'be quiet'. So he obliged and for almost the whole time he held his tongue, he didn't ask questions, and he tried not to complain.

Tried

When they approached the forty five minute mark of trekking Jake had to talk, he had to say something, anything.

The birdsong, the tropical frogs croaking, the heat, the high pitched roaring of small jungle animals, Tawaya's eerie deliberate silence, it was all driving him mad.

He didn't say anything when the trail started to get less worn, and more overgrown.

He was quiet when they started going uphill again.

Even when the trail ended he controlled his tongue.

But the rocks, the god damn pebbles…

Every few feet there'd be a small rock, darkly covered enough, or covered in moss enough that it couldn't be seen. And then, crack! He'd step on it and roll his ankle.

In a burst of frustrated rage he stopped and started swearing.

"These goddamn fucking rocks! This fucking… STUPID Island! This fucking heat!"

Et cetera, he'd list off a revolving itinerary of things that were grating on him, or irritating, or bothering, or just simply out of his control.

Tawaya turned the first time in surprise, concerned. Then she asked him what it was that caused the outburst and he would point down.

The second time he did it she turned and roared at him.

It scared the crap out of him and then he realized something.

He'd be lost if he tried to turn back now, he was literally stuck. Out in the jungle, on an island, nowhere near his country, with a big, strong, intimidating, irritated, alien.

He realized he'd literally have to keep his mouth shut.

So when he accidentally stepped on her heel, when she made her threat to hurt him, he knew, and he realized, she was not joking and he could not afford to be left alone out here.

Tired and strained, he was doing his best to try and watch his footing and he began to get more and more lightheaded.

They were coming downhill now, and the vegetation had thinned enough that one could see the opening of a cove or inlet ahead.

It was far off but the sight of it was a bit of a relief to Jake, he'd assumed it was somehow their destination.

Though, he actually had no idea.

Tawaya had stopped now and was looking intently at a nearby tree.

There were scratch marks in the base, the kind an animal makes when sharpening their claws.

It was a marker of some kind.

But Jake was really not in the frame of mind to be able to play guessing games.

He was just happy at having finally gotten a break.

He leaned over and widened his stance, trying to find a position he was comfortable in, and could recover from the non-stop exercise that the hiking had forced on him.

When he thought his breathing and composure was under control he leaned back up and straightened his spine for the first time in a while.

His face went flush pale, and the blood in his head rushed back downwards from the quick change.

His eyes drooped and he tried keeping them open as he began to see spots.

Involuntarily he let slip a low exclamation; "oh dear…"

He tried rubbing his eyes and took a step backwards.

Tawaya had stood by now but she was too far away from him to help.

As he stepped back his heels caught on a gnarled exposed Palm root.

* * *

Tawaya lunged forward with both arms outstretched to try and catch Jake's shirt, but his small body angled backwards with ease and his black tee-shirt grazed her finger tips.

The inertia of him moving backwards and the angle of the root was enough to make him lose his bearing and fall like he'd been pushed, or tripped.

Tawaya tried grabbing hold of him by the shirt, or by the pants. But by the time she'd actually reached the position required to have helped he'd already smacked against the ground.

His body broke through some fern's large blanketing leaves and his head bent backwards so that it hit the ground at the same time as his ass and back.

Underneath the greenery and the jungle floor were some rocks.

The force of the impact on the ground instantly threw his arms, numbly, to his sides.

He went limp like he'd been hit fatally by a bullet.

Tawaya watched in horror as her human cracked against the ground.

Immediately she let out a pained roar, as if she herself had been hurt.

She shook her hands up and down and she dove to his side, looking him over head to toe.

She scooped her left hand under his head, and with her right she held his neck.

Making sure not to twist, or to aggravate any existing damage, she cautiously felt through his dark hair.

Lowering his head back down she looked at her fingers, he was bleeding.

She began making a yip like sound in between distressed growls.

She looked to either side, and began breathing heavily as she started to feel panic and doubt well up in her chest.

She rubbed her brow and looked back down at her limp boy.

'He was alive. I know that, but… what if he's hurt his spine?'

She began to feel a new sensation in her chest, and it was awful.

Yautja have the concept of guilt, owning a failure, taking blame, dishonour.

But Tawaya had never hurt someone and regretted it; she'd never accidentally led to someone else being hurt.

Yautja don't fall over and die from hitting their heads. Their musculature and body strength meant that you'd have to really purposefully try to kill a fellow Yautja to actually do it.

A human, was so much more fragile.

She knew that already, of course. Every Yautja knew that.

You could break their arms with a good punch; you could rend their head from their body barehanded.

But, she'd never seen their fragility exposed in an accident.

That fall, that small trip, that was enough to take her Jake away. And it wasn't because he was weak…

She shook her head, 'He wasn't weak… that was not right of me to say…'

And Tawaya felt horrible, her stomach dropped when she heard the smack and watched his eyes close and his body go limp.

'This… this is my fault…'

She felt scared at the uncertainty of his condition. And she came to feel legitimate fear in a way she'd never felt before.

Loss

Being scared on a hunt is natural, there were things that could go wrong, life and death were closely linked and at any moment it could tip the other way, out of the hunter's favour.

But losing something she cared about?

Yautja do not typically have such notions of sentimentality. So for Tawaya the terror she was currently feeling was the first time she'd ever felt it. She'd never cared about anything, or anyone, before in a way that was comparable.

She didn't quite realize how much she liked her Jake, but now she was face to face with it.

Over and over she whispered 'no' to herself in her own language, the way that the word sounded and the speed she was saying it made it seem like she was humming.

Looking pensively at the blood drops on her fingertips she immediately shook her head and her inner monologue roared against its self; 'He is not dead!'

She looked back towards him and carefully pressed her fingers to begin feeling his neck.

Visually there was nothing poking out, his vertebrae seemed fine.

But under the skin is a different story.

Feeling upwards she got as close to the base of his skull as she could.

It all checked out as 'normal' and as far as she could tell, his spine was fine.

As she pressed into his flesh she could also feel his steady pulse.

She felt a bit of relief flood into her body, 'He's not dead…'

Though she didn't pause for long, time was pressing.

'I've got to move him…' she confirmed.

Slowly she tucked her left arm under his neck to support and keep his head from rolling or rocking about. Her right arm slipped under his knees and she lifted upwards slowly. As if he was a sleeping newborn.

She held him as close to her body as she could, and his head rested in the crook of her elbow so that he was looking upwards.

She looked in the direction of her ship, and made a guttural sound, the signal for it to de-cloak and come into the visible spectrum.

Promptly it began to crackle.

It was quite close, and she walked as fast as she could towards it while keeping Jake's body still.

In her arms she felt him twitch, and one of his legs kicked outwards.

She looked down briefly before looking back up at her ship.

On the bottom of the hull a hatch had opened and a ramp promptly deployed itself and extended downwards, impaling into the ground.

Jake twitched again and when she looked down she saw that his eyes had opened.

She stopped walking and her eyebrows rose. Her chest was filled with relief.

'He _was_ alive!'

She looked down at his face and he moved his head slightly as his eyes looked around lazily trying to focus.

In the heat of the situation Tawaya's English became broken.

"Little Jake! I help you, no move, hurt."

He opened his mouth and croaked, though no words came out.

Her relief and momentary confidence dissipated and her fear and concern returned in a wave as her thoughts ran.

She looked back up and increased her speed, getting closer and closer to the ramp.

'What are you going to do Tawaya?'

'What will you do when you get him on board?'

Her thoughts began talking to each other as doubt and her fear grew.

She looked down and his eyes had closed. He was unconscious again, and his head limply moved from side to side as her body took each step.

In frustration she roared as her feet clanged onto the metal ramp.

The motion activated port above the ramp opened and she entered into her ship carrying her unconscious lover.

When the vertical door closed behind her she roared again, louder than the last and with more rage.

Yautja are funny with their emotions…

* * *

The ship was small, it had a single seat cockpit, a small two bunk sleeping quarters, and a restroom consisting of a toilet and a wash basin. The largest room was the cargo bay, which was also the main hub that connected to each section of the small craft.

The ramp and door Tawaya entered through led into this cargo bay and hastily she made her way towards her sleeping cabin.

Her cot was already deployed and she pushed off a small box of her affects.

Slowly and carefully she lowered her Jake onto the soft bedding.

After doing so she backed up and crossed back into the cargo hold.

She began looking for the medico panel.

Though it wasn't exactly looking, she knew where it was. She lived in the ship for long enough she knew it inside and out. But she never needed or used it, and momentarily she panicked at having forgotten about it.

Pushing several metallic crates out of her way she pushed the electronic seal on the middle of the two doored cabinet.

When it finally opened for her she looked over the shelves for each thing she thought would be essential for healing her human.

She grabbed a scanner and its tablet screen; she also grabbed a roll of bandage, a phial of clear liquid, what could be considered an ampule, and a small kit of implements.

Her hands were full of these medical supplies and she hastily made her way back to her room.

* * *

Jake's eyes opened and he struggled to adjust to the foreign lighting.

He groaned and reached a hand behind his head to lightly run through his hair.

The back of his scalp was pulsing, and he had a pounding headache behind his eyes.

'Where the fuck am I?'

The steady hum of electricity and an engine could be heard muffled by the metal panels which encompassed the small room.

The walls were darkly coloured silver-grey. The roof was black panels with a few pot lights which illuminated the room.

Moving his weight around Jake noticed that he was lying on something soft.

He began looking around to his sides, he was on a cot which had folded out of the wall, and above him to his left another cot was stored against the wall.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position and leaned his back against the wall behind him while rubbing the back of his head.

Blood had dried in his hair and had made painful clumps. He decided to leave them before he hurt his scalp more by pulling the hair out accidentally.

Looking forwards and across from where he sat he noticed there was a huge glass paned cabinet of sorts, in it there were hooks and clips adorned with weapons.

His eyes darted around the wall, scanning each deadly looking tool.

There were several spears, there were what appeared to be bulky pistols, there was a series of knives, there was a big Frisbee sized metal disc, there were ninja throwing stars the size of his hand, then there were big gauntlets, each had two long blades projecting out of them.

The gauntlet blades were serrated and segmented, like a saw, or shark teeth.

They were each nearly a foot long.

He finally looked to his right to see a very tall doorway.

In fact he now noticed that everything was bigger. The bed, while a single cot, was dimensionally bigger. The celling was taller; the button panel beside the doorway which he assumed was the light switches were for very large fingers.

Outside the room he could hear rummaging and a loud crash.

He looked at the doorway as he heard approaching footsteps.

Into the breach Tawaya appeared, her arms were laden with several items and she stopped with surprise when she saw that he was sitting, and conscious.

She made a loud noise of joy and rushed towards him.

She dumped what was in her arms onto the end of the bed before grabbing hold of his shoulders and looking him over.

"W-what are you doing?" he managed to squeak out.

She leant him forward and looked at the back of his head intently.

She stuttered as she spoke, first in her language, and then quickly into English.

"Y-you were hurt! I was… I was…" she stopped herself, and he pushed against her hands so he could sit upright and see her face.

He had furrowed his brow and he looked at her intently.

She closed her mouth and tightly pursed her mandibles.

"Are you okay?" She finally spoke.

He touched the back of his head again and felt a large egg welling up.

"Yeah, I think so. My head really bloody hurts and I feel tired as fuck. But yes I'm okay."

She nodded emphatically, "I thought you were dead Little Jake"

He snickered, "from tripping? Christ, ha! That would be my luck wouldn't it?"

Her brow furrowed in concern, she didn't find this at all funny.

"I just knocked myself out. Kind of scared myself there, though I'm sure you might have been-"

She cut him off by leaning forward and hugging him tightly, she was mindful not to squeeze too much, but she was overcome with joy and relief that he was awake.

She clicked her tusks together and made a muffled growl into his shoulder.

It didn't take much time for him to hug her back.

Wrapping his arms around her back and under her dreads he returned the gesture and she breathed heavily.

The two remained in their embrace for several minutes, Jake didn't want to let go either, and he ran his hand up and down her back. Pushing his fingers into her flesh he rubbed her and she carefully did the same to him.

The asymmetrical pair sat in the quiet hum of the cabin, listening to each other breathing.

'This isn't so bad…' Jake thought.


	10. Chapter 10

The whole time since he woke up Tawaya was counting her blessings, she was relieved but the apprehension she felt earlier hadn't yet completely left her.

So each time Jake moved she felt the urge to jump to his aid.

The first time it happened he thanked her and was genuinely receptive to the concern, but then the next few times he laughed at her expression and quickness to respond to even the most casual of his movements.

She was embarrassed, but didn't, or couldn't, let herself stop being concerned.

He eyed all of his surroundings with disbelief and awe.

When she thought about it he'd probably be the only, living, human who'd actually been brought into a Yautja ship.

She was aware of a story, many decades ago, where a human warrior fought his way into the belly of a clan ship, but she'd heard it from a hunter who'd heard it from another hunter, and so on. Even if she'd heard it firsthand Tawaya doubted such a feat was possible even for a heroic human.

But even then, even though they were alone, she knew that this was against the rules. It must be. It felt wrong, forbidden.

But she was scared, at a loss as to what to do.

So she wasn't thinking clearly or in steps, and she hadn't thought about what was to come next after he'd woken. But her Jake was not going to die in jungle refuse.

Being at such a loss she didn't stop him from sitting up from the bed.

He was a little unsteady but seemed fine.

Then he had that look in his eyes, like a pup that could now walk, he was wild with curiosity and couldn't help but feel a call to explore.

So she didn't barre him from going through the doorway and into the cargo hold.

'How could I stop him?'

Then a fearful thought dawned on her, 'my ship's a mess!'

Her eyebrows rose as she started noticing the boxes, the empty ration containers, her open sharpening kit, her different sandals strewn about, even her pile of undergarments at the foot of her cot.

She backed up to the wall and let Jake pass before she dove to the floor and hastily began trying to tidy, or more accurately hide, all of her out of place items.

When he crossed into the cargo hold he audibly announced it; "Whoa! Tawaya… this is the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life!"

She was under the cot pushing her dirty clothes out of view and hit her head when she attempted to crawl back out.

Groan-growling she rubbed the crown of her head just before her dreadlocks and looked towards Jake.

He had turned around to face her and he beamed a giddy smile at her.

"This is just so fucking cool!"

She clicked her tusks and smiled to herself. Forgetting her worries at this being forbidden or not. Her Jake was okay, she was with him, and life would continue, that was all that mattered at the moment.

"It completely makes up for hitting my head to get here." He laughed as he looked up, around, down, and back behind him as he turned again.

He began walking towards the small restroom opposite the sleeping quarters and Tawaya stood and walked towards him.

"What's in here?" he asked quizzically. He approached the door and the portal opened vertically with a quick 'clunk'.

"Whoa! Cool…"

She was beside him now and he poked his head in through the doorway.

"It is water room." She announced, trying to formulate what it would be called in English.

Jake nodded, and snickered, "I didn't realize just how universal a bathroom really was."

She nodded, and he turned back into the cargo hold.

"What's that door?" He pointed towards the airlock/ramp exit.

Tawaya nodded, "That's where we came from; it is main exit."

He nodded and pushed out his lips, "Coolio"

Then turning he began walking towards the cockpit.

"This is the last part right? What's down there?"

Tawaya hastily ran after him, 'What if he hit a button or something!?'

"Wait Little Jake!"

He saw the large pilot's chair and the wide display panels surrounding the small room.

"Woah…"

"Don't touch Little Jake!"

He brought up both his hands and stepped away from the controls.

"I won't ha, don't worry, I'm not that stupid."

Tawaya stood beside him and she felt her heart racing as if she were running a sprint.

'Okay… its fine… calm down, he's just looking'

Jake looked at her and saw that she was strangely still, he smirked. She was feigning calmness, she was losing her mind inside, he could tell.

Leaning forwards slowly he acted extremely innocent, and pretended he was utterly unaware.

He saw a large bluish button near the centre of the console directly in front of the chair; he moved his head to the side so she could see what he was looking at.

Then he giggled to himself before he brought his hand up, as if he was going to press it.

"What's this button do?"

He spoke in his most unassuming and blank voice possible.

Tawaya let out a yelp-like noise before wrapping her arms around his abdomen and lifting him backwards.

He immediately started laughing, his loud giggles unnerved her and she looked over the screen and panel for signs of engine ignition.

Then she quickly realized; he was playing with her.

She furrowed her brow as he continued to giggle and laugh, "OH my god, your face!"

She put him back down and raised her hand to hit him on the shoulder.

"Ah! My head! Not the head!" He covered his face with his hands and raised his shoulders in a playful cower.

"Little Jake, not funny!"

Rather than hit him she pointed backwards towards the cargo hold and he smiled at her before complying with the command.

He giggled again and turned towards her, "It was a little funny."

She clicked her tusks and pointed at him, "You the little funny here!"

When they were back in the sleeping quarters Tawaya cleaned his scalp, and ran a Yautja disinfectant wipe through his hair.

She soaked up the dried blood, and got the clumps out of his hair.

When she was done Jake sat back down on the cot while she got up to remove her equipment.

Tawaya unclipped her helmet from her belt and placed it into its spot on the weapon wall. She also drew her knife and placed it beside its brothers.

Finally she unfastened her belt and laid it back where it belonged as well.

While she was busy Jake looked around the small rectangular room.

He was feeling better now that his cut was cleaned and that he had walked around a bit.

Also now his head was no longer throbbing as bad as well, 'so that was a plus.' he thought.

Across from him in the wall opposite the beds were what looked like small drawers?

He curiously brought his hand towards one and fit his diminutive fingers into the broad opening. Pulling backwards it unclicked like it was being held closed by a magnet, it smoothly and noiselessly rolled open.

At first it looked like a collection of scrap dark material.

Then Jake's eyes grew wide as he recognized the familiar triangular shape of panties. It was a universal design apparently.

"No way…" he looked to his side at Tawaya, who was seemingly still preoccupied.

Then he quickly and cautiously moved his hand to grab one.

Sure enough it was an undergarment almost exactly like the one she had on. Turning back towards his amazon Yautja he saw that she was frozen staring at him.

He looked over at her with a raised eyebrow before he playfully spoke, "Hey… can I keep one?"

She shook her head as she walked towards him. "Put back Jake!"

He jumped back onto the cot away from her, playfully he matched her tone and responded, "No way! Ha!"

She put a hand on her hip and extended the other palm upwards.

Ignoring her motion deliberately Jake instead looked upwards at the ceiling and spoke; "Say, Tawaya… You live here right?"

She nodded and squinted at him, unsure what he meant by the sudden change in subject.

"Have you ever," he paused and moved his eyebrows up twice, "christened it?"

She squinted again, "Little Jake, what are you playing at?"

He rubbed the cot playfully, and let out a laugh. "You know…?"

Her expression changed as she realized he was making a sexual proposition.

"…broken it in?"

He laughed playfully as she genuinely thought about it; briefly she had considered mating with a male she met a few seasons ago in her ship, but ultimately nothing ever came of it.

Eventually she shook her head honestly, "I can't say I have, Little Jake."

Giddy with a perverse excitement Jake laid backwards suggestively.

"Here, let's make a deal, I… lick you."

Her eyes widened and she drew back her hand.

"And you let me keep these?"

He waved the panties around on his index finger. She looked at him with surprise, before laughing.

Her demeanour changed, she finally seemed to be rid of her earlier stress and fear. She was relieved and looked like she had gotten lighter.

Finally she responded,

"Is that so Little Jake?"

He stuck his tongue out comically and nodded, "Mm hmm"

She began blinking as if she were flustered.

She looked down and to her sides, moving her weight around uncertainly.

Parting her mandibles she opened her mouth to speak.

She lowered to kneel and slowly leaned towards Jake.

His demeanour now changed and he became dead serious.

'Woah… what is this?'

She breathlessly moved closer to him, and he lowered until he was lying down now. She planted both her arms on either side of his body as she looked into his eyes.

She kept blinking, it was… well it was hot to Jake. She looked like she was pained, just aching, for sexual attention.

He was flustered and felt his cheeks go bright red.

His heartbeat increased and he licked his lips involuntarily.

Then he felt her hand grip his. Quickly she pulled the panties out of his light grip.

As fast as she came on to him she immediately recoiled, clicking her tusks and laughing manically in victory.

"Wait! What?!"

She stood up and threw the garment into her drawer, closing it with a punch of her fist.

Jake's mouth hung open and he finally spoke, "You were acting?!"

She looked at him with an eyebrow raised, wordlessly her body said 'duh'.

"Yes Little Jake, one turn deserves another don't you think?"

He sat back up and shook his head in disbelief; he couldn't help but crack a smile too.

"Wow, I didn't think you'd do that… like holy shit, what was with that eye thing?"

She smiled and flicked her dreadlocks off her shoulders, "Now, about that licking?"

His expression changed, "What?"

She cocked her head playfully to the side and clicked a mandible impatiently.

"You're not usually this slow Jake."

He gulped, her expression was quite intense. He brought a hand up towards the back of his head as he spoke in a meek voice, "B-but… m-my head?"

She swayed her head to either side before lowering in a lean.

"That wasn't about to stop you earlier, was it?"

He swallowed again and pushed his bangs out of his eyes.

"What if I was just j-joking?"

Tawaya smiled and the corners of her eyes crinkled, she was actually really cute when she did that.

Scary still, but, when she made expressions like that it kept softening her appearance to Jake.

"Okay… so I wasn't joking, but like." He stopped and breathed as his thoughts ran.

'I am kind of horny… she likes it… Would I come too? Or like, would it just be her?'

'But my head is still hurting, but like, doesn't sex-stuff release good drugs? They help with headaches and shit right?'

He looked at her wet mouth, then down her neck.

Those fishnets… holy shit, they were hot.

Then he looked down her chest, her breasts were being constrained by the webbing digging just barely into her taut skin.

Now his eyes slowly ran down, towards her tight looking abdomen, her navel, and belly button.

With her skirt-belt off she was just wearing her underwear and her webbing.

The panties seemed tight enough that in the shadowing of her body Jake thought he could see the outline of her pussy pushing through the material.

By now he was pretty aroused, like he'd been drugged and it was now taking affect.

He began thinking of her, of her being wet, the taste, and her feeling of her warm thighs around his head.

He thought about her dominating him, how easily she could press him down, her rough hands gripping his body.

She smelt nice.

Her thighs were soft, and when she scratched him he screamed.

She was beautiful to him, terrifying, arousing, dominating, enticing, each in equal measure.

He pictured and imagined her sitting on his face. Her thighs stopping his arms and hands from moving, he pictured her pinning him, practically forcing him to only be able to lick and pleasure her.

Wildly his mind wanted to lick her all over.

He wanted to hear her scream ecstatically. He wanted to watch her writhe around, kicking the air.

Pulling his hair, biting him, scratching, each pleasurable fantasy that crossed his mind made his chest dip deeper with each breath.

His lips were dry as he finally nodded, barely able to contain his own desire for her.

He spoke with a vulnerable voice, expectant, yet completely unsure of what was to actually come.

"Okay, sure…"

She noticed the change in his demeanour and she too changed expression.

"Take off your clothes Jake."

At the command he immediately sat up straight and grabbed hold of either side of his shirt, but before he began she continued, "Slowly."

He obliged and proceeded to move with careful deliberation.

Jake didn't try to make a face, or a performance out of it, he thought he'd look too silly or uncoordinated. But to Tawaya, she was enjoying him as if he were giving a cam show and as if he had experience stripping professionally.

When he finally pulled off his tight black tee, he threw it to the side of the bed and looked at her with his mouth slightly open; expectantly, he began biting the inside of his bottom lip.

She nodded approvingly.

"Keep going."

Jake nodded at the impetus and rose from his sitting position to his knees.

He looked downward as he began pulling his belt free.

When it came out of his pant loops he tossed it in the same direction as his shirt.

Then he began unbuttoning and unzipping his pants.

He stopped and looked up at Tawaya.

His pale chest heaved up and down, now exposed to the air his skin began rippling with goosebumps, and his small pink nipples poked out slightly.

She looked him over and he finished unzipping the pant fly.

He pulled the pants down from his waist so that they were halfway down his thighs.

Sitting back down on his butt he raised his legs enough to pull his pants past his knees.

Impatiently Tawaya took a step forwards and ripped the jeans off the rest of the way off him.

"Ah!" he made a surprised yelp when she did so.

She now mounted the cot and looked him over as he lay motionless underneath her.

His mouth was open and the only sound, other than the audible hum of the ship, was his breathing.

Shallow and loud she just watched him for a few moments before he broke it.

"What about you? A-aren't you going to strip?"

She looked down at herself, and irritatingly began pulling off her webbing.

Jake leant up to try and help her. She growled at him and swiftly pushed him back down with ease.

"But maybe if I help?" He tried rising again, and she turned to look at him this time before growling.

He furrowed his brow, and was about to talk back to her.

"Hey! You know you can't just do that every time-"

She cut him off with a hand over his mouth. Her other hand left the job of stripping and made its way towards his boxers.

Through the material she began rubbing xxxxx.

At first he furrowed his brow in aggravation at her, but then his expression melted into disbelief when her other hand made contact with him.

He raised his hands towards her.

She relented a little and moved her hand away from his mouth.

When it was uncovered he nodded, and spoke breathlessly, and in a higher pitch than normal.

"Okay… you're the boss."

She began purring, and clicking.

Looking down towards his crotch she stopped rubbing him through the material and poked her fingers underneath the elastic band around his waist. Then with both hands she pulled the garment down to expose his erect member.

She made a pleased sounding hiss, as if she was wordlessly saying; 'ah'.

Then she backed off of the bed and stood back up.

Jake didn't speak but his confused expression was enough, and in response Tawaya exclaimed.

"Now, I will strip."

Jake nodded.

"But, I want you to play with yourself."

Jake swallowed a dry breath, and asked in disbelief; "r-really?"

She turned around and bent over, deliberately moving her ass into his view.

Repeating his word she answered, "Really."

Xxxxx (Questionable content was here)

"I thought you wanted me to lick you?"

She looked pensive, and raised a hand.

"Shush… I'm thinking Little Jake."

He gave her an incredulous look, "Are you serious… after all that?"

She looked at him and cocked her head to the side, a sadistic smile on her features. She looked like she had just decided something.

Jake bit his tongue, "Ok… what is that look for?"

She walked out of the room and he could hear some movement and clicking.

Finally he heard what sounded like a seal being broken.

Slowly walking back into the room Tawaya held a small glass looking container.

"w-what is that?" Jake had risen to his knees and pointed with his tied hands.

"A drink, Little Jake" She held it out to him, and he looked at her with suspicion.

"What kind of drink?"

She huffed in irritation, "Just try it, it's a Yautja drink."

Jake opened his mouth and looked at her intensely, he obliged. He was willing to try it, he'd try any kind of food or drink, but he couldn't help but feel suspicious at the timing of her offer.

Though of course he was correct to be wary, not like it helped him though…

It smelt like something alcoholic, and so he braced for a bitter strong taste, when she poured some into his mouth however, instead of being alcoholic tasting it tasted like an energy drink. But it was worse, like it was mixed with battery acid.

He choked, and recoiled from her as he coughed.

"What the fuck is that?"

She smiled at him and quickly replaced the cap before kneeling to put it on the floor.

He finished coughing and furrowed his brow as he looked at her disappointedly.

"It tastes horrible and…"

He stopped and she leaned in, her eyes widening.

He looked at her again, his stomach felt weird, and in the lack of attention being given to it, his dick had lost most of its rigidity.

But then he shuddered, suddenly his stomach felt really hot. His chest felt strangely warm too.

Then he felt it in his crotch, quickly his whole body felt tingly.

In a low voice he said the first thing that came to his mind,

"D-did you just drug me?"

Tawaya immediately nodded, "When we Yautja mate, we sometimes drink this."

His eyes went wide and he tried moving his hands, the bonds were far too tight though.

"I was curious to see what would happen if you had it."

She pointed to his now fully erect penis, "evidentially it has similar effects."

He took a breath and straightened up, he was about to yell loudly in protest but then he exhaled a moan as it hit his brain.

She smiled again, "Come here."

He nodded and moved closer towards her,

"Lay down on your back, here, with your head hanging off the bed."

He wordlessly obliged.

Turning around he lowered his neck and head backwards so he was upside down looking up at her.

"Are you okay? Your head doesn't hurt does it?"

Jake nodded, "I-I feel fucking r-really, great… My head doesn't hurt at all."

She took a breath, 'good…'

"Now Jake," she stepped forwards so her pussy was over top of him, "Open your mouth."


	11. Chapter 11

1

Xxxx (Chapter opened with questionable content and was almost exclusively that)

Giggling at his expression she brought her hand down towards him and extended her index finger.

Wordlessly she brought her chin up, looking down at him with a commanding stare.

The boy was breathing heavily and finally parted his lips.

She ran her finger along his bottom lip, clicking against his piercing before she slipped it into his mouth and placed it on his tongue.

At the sharp taste he closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, he gagged slightly, but reopened his eyes and looked back up at her.

He began licking her finger and she made a loud sound of shock, it was ticklish!

"Ah! Little Jake stop that! Let go!"

He brought his teeth down enough that he held the digit trapped in his small, warm, mouth.

Parting his lips he made a smile at her as he proceeded to torture her, apparently, sensitive skin.

Her hips stopped moving against him and she brought her other hand up futilely as she began giggling.

She shook her head as the giggle quickly evolved into a laugh.

Jake continued to lick the bottom and the sensitive left side of her long finger.

"S-stop that!"

She furrowed her brow and closed her eyes as she began swearing in her language, shaking her head side to side, whipping her dreadlocks over her shoulders.

Finally he stopped moving his tongue against her skin and he parted his teeth.

She pulled the finger from his tongue and finished laughing while looking at him affectionately.

'Little Jake…'

She leaned downwards, raising an eyebrow and clicking at him thoughtfully.

"I ought to punish you for that Little Jake."

He looked up expectantly, but she continued; "Ha… but I won't, not right now at least."


	12. Chapter 12

It was the most fun, exhausting, weird, and surprising, sexual activity of Jake's relatively short life, and only when Tawaya was satisfied did she release the chord from around his wrists.

Lying on his side panting Jake didn't even notice that his arms were free now. His eyes were closed and he was far too tired to bother with trying to move.

xxxx

Their bodies were slick with natural lubricant but the cumulative stress on Jake's body had proved far too much, and the low stamina, sloth, emo boy simply could not keep up with her, even with the Yautja drink in his system.

In the low lighting of the cabin Tawaya looked over her pale, sweat covered, nude human and rubbed her top right mandible with her forefinger.

An action she did unconsciously when she was thinking.

'Cudding', she remembered.

She was lying beside him with her head resting in her left hand in a position of repose, just watching him breathe.

As his panting slowed, and the shallow, short breaths became deeper and longer she decided to move him.

Shifting forward she extended her left arm under his torso and her right around his buttock, at her touch Jake cooed and stirred but did not open his eyes.

When she had a firm enough hold she pulled him, limply, towards her.

'He's so light…'

Pressing his slick and wet skin against hers Tawaya felt the warmth of his breath against her breast, and the ticklish poking of his hair against her collar.

There was enough room that she could still look down at his face, and she was heartened to see his open, bright eyes looking up at her.

The two proceeded to have a wordless conversation.

And punctuating it Jake expended a great amount of effort to raise his hand towards her face.

He ran his thin and small fingers along her 'cheek' and towards her pursed mandibles and mouth.

The touch was intimate and warm, as he pushed himself closer to her he gave a smile, he was tired and features showed it, but the smile was unmolested by his fatigue and so it was made all the more genuine for it.

Moving his other hand towards her he wrapped it through her arm and torso and pulled himself so that his face was now up against her breast.

His legs, heavy and sore, wrapped themselves around hers, finishing the contact and making it so that the length of his body was touching hers.

Without reserve she returned the gesture of human intimacy and hugged him back, aware of his fragility, and her strength, Tawaya made sure not to crush him, but she squeezed him firmly.

She exhaled a satisfied sigh and let go of him, shifting his weight Jake rolled onto his back away from her.

The sweat made the action more audible than it should have been, and Jake brought a hand to his mouth as a torrent of giggles exited.

Tawaya could only raise an eyebrow as she watched him uneasily.

'He certainly does have a peculiar sense of humor'

When he finished he took a deep breath and shook his head, a peculiar expression across his features as he looked at the female Yautja.

"Well, now what?" he finally said.

In the humming quiet of the ship Tawaya was at a loss.

She thought about it and she couldn't come up with an answer, she was tired too, and hadn't actually planned this far ahead.

In fact this had all been rather spontaneous.

She lay down, and looked upwards before finally answering.

"I'm not sure Little Jake."

In response he 'hmm-d' and nodded, turning to face her again he blinked as his eyes refocused,

"Okay, how long before this shit wears off?"

He held his hand above his face and pointed at what he assumed were his dilated eyes.

Tilting enough to see him Tawaya shrugged, and returned to her resting position.

"What!? You don't know? Dude I feel like Jello, I'm literally a puddle right now. How long before I go back to normal?"

Shrugging again she vocalized her thoughts, "I'm not sure, our conceptions of time are different. And our perceptions of it are different too, no doubt."

Jake furrowed his brow, "What you may consider a short period of time I may consider average, simply because we use two different systems of measurement."

Turning back to look at him she continued, "Even if I knew how long it would affect a human in Yautja time, I wouldn't know how to convert it so you would understand."

"I don't even know how your time works."

Jake rubbed his eyes and shook his head, "Okay, okay, it's weird enough when I consider you're an alien; please don't get me into philosophy stuff when I'm high, Christ."

She clicked her tusks and laughed, "You do not enjoy higher thought? You humans devote much effort towards it."

Exhaling as he sat up the boy responded, "I do, I guess. It's just right now, if I tried wrapping my head around it I'd end up confused and with a headache."

Clicking in response she thought, 'fair enough'.

Quite returned to the cabin and the sounds joining the low electronic hum was Jake's breathing and the minute sounds of effort as he stretched his arms upwards, and outwards.

Rubbing his muscles he made the occasional groan when he touched an area that was sore.

Tawaya brought an arm under the back of her head, adjusting the angle she was lying at so she could just watch him.

He leaned forward and along his back his spinal vertebrae bumped outwards.

She studied his body, and when he groaned again she leant up.

Wrapping her hands on either side of one of his arms she began squeezing, like the first time they met.

"Oh… thanks,"

He smiled as he relaxed in her hands.

"You know that feels great by the way."

Squeezing and rolling his muscle in her hands she slowly massaged his right arm, stopping when she reached the wrist.

Wordlessly she clapped her hands and motioned, indicating she wanted his left arm now.

Repositioning himself Jake extended the other limb and she repeated her massage.

When she reached the wrist again she finished and he nodded at her in gratitude.

"What can I do for you now?"

She thought about it, and gave him an answer.

"Can you swim Little Jake?"

His face became confused but he nodded, "Yeah? Though I don't see how…"

Cutting him off Tawaya began speaking, "Good, come on."

Standing up from the bed she began walking, nude, toward the doorway of the cabin.

"Whoa what? Wait up!"

Struggling to stand off the bed Jake's legs became pins and needles, numb, from the way he had been sitting.

Bending over he grabbed his boxers and pulled them on. He left his shirt and pants simply because there wasn't the time to put them on.

Outside in the main room of the ship Tawaya had pressed the button on the small console beside the exit door; opening the portal with a 'gush' he could hear what sounded like large hydraulic parts moving.

The ramp of the ship had now descended and Tawaya began walking down it with her typical purposeful stride.

He raced after her as best he could; the metallic floor of the ship was cold and shocking to the touch of his bare feet.

But watching her large ass bouncing as she walked encouraged him onwards.

"W-wait up Tawaya!"

Stepping into the tropical sunlight from the rather dark cave of the ship was actually quite welcome.

It was bright, but there was birdsong, and the buzzing sounds of nature and life to greet them.

Holding both her arms outstretched Tawaya threw her head back and closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

Stepping off the ramp and onto earth Jake looked around curiously before Tawaya turned around and walked towards him.

"Come, let's go swim."

He smiled, 'God she has such confidence… like she's naked! But she couldn't care less, she just, like, exudes confidence and what… power?' he nodded, 'Yeah, power.'

The two walked out of the cover of the trees and towards the small area of beach which made up the private inlet.

Though he was still a little intoxicated Jake couldn't help but feel concerned,

"Hey, what if… what if people find us here?"

Tawaya looked back and shook her head, "They wouldn't. The whole time I've been here there has yet to be any human activity in this cove."

He wasn't convinced,

"Okay, but… how can you be sure?"

She huffed at his persistence and stopped walking, "I've set many trackers around the paths in the jungle. There's been nothing larger than wild O-inks."

Jake accepted her answer, and the way she delivered it was enough to convince him. But as he went over her words in his head he paused at 'o-inks'.

She started walking again and he sped up to be alongside her, "What's an o-ink?"

"Four legs, they're very tasty…" she paused, "They rub in dirt to cool themselves."

Jake laughed, "That's a pig, ha! You call them oinks? That's the sound they make right?"

She nodded.

He began 'oinking' and she nodded again.

"Well I've got to get you some bacon… you'd love it."

She furrowed her brow as she repeated the word, "Bacon?"

"Yeah, it's made from pigs. It's ah-mazing."

Tawaya smiled, and she thought 'I'd look forward to that'.

By now they'd reached the surf and the water washed up to their bare feet.

Jake yelped, "Oh! That's cold!"

She held out her hand to him and began walking more into the water.

Taking her hand Jake walked alongside her, holding his breath at the coolness of the water.

It was about thigh height now and Tawaya stopped, he looked up at her and gave a pained smile, "Man it's cooler than I expected! Ha!"

Her expression was blank, and he quickly became concerned, "What's wrong?"

In response she surprised him by pushing his shoulder.

He slipped to the side and made a loud splash as he landed on his ass, the whole decent he shrieked loudly and immediately splashed water towards Tawaya.

"Oh! You are evil!"

She was laughing deeply and clutched her abdomen, bending slightly.

Jake wiped his face and brushed his now wet hair out of his eyes, "Truly! You," he pointed, "are an evil big girl!"

She finished laughing and splashed backwards to sit beside him.

"You are so sensitive Little Jake."

Closing her eyes she took a satisfied breath and continued, "You need to relax."

Jake snorted and let out a laugh,

"Really? That's your advice is it?"

She nodded while she cupped her hands together, dripping water down her chest and between her breasts.

Watching the path of the water between her large tits Jake shuddered briefly, before looking back up at the curve of the edges of the cove.

Then he sighed, "This is a nice place you've got here…"

Tawaya looked up and around, scanning their surroundings, eventually she nodded, "I picked it because it was secluded."

"Yeah?"

"M-hmm, secluded and yet close enough I could still watch humans."

Jake pushed his lips out and made a wordless affirmation, and then the two grew silent.

Sharing the moment, the two sat quietly in the water, watching the breeze on the palms around them, the waves coming in and out slowly, the birds singing in the air.

Breaking the calmness, Jake rose and wadded deeper into the water.

When it was up to his chest he jumped off the sand below and lunged forwards into a stroke.

Behind him he could hear his lover following.

Paddling and kicking forcefully he turned around to watch Tawaya do the same as him and lunge forwards into the water.

Though she created a much larger wake then he did.

Unlike her however Jake's muscles and body was still relatively worn out, considering this he didn't stray any deeper than where he could still touch the bottom with his toes.

Tawaya, still full of energy, stroked and swam quite far from shore, occasionally disappearing from view underneath the water and returning with a loud eruption of splashing.

The two were out like this for several minutes, occasionally splashing at each other as their paths intersected.

Though when his legs had had enough Jake knew he didn't want to push his luck and end up with a cramp, so he quickly made his way to the shore.

Dogpaddling his way back he emerged from the surf and shook his shoulders and legs out, like he used to in gym class.

He walked around the beach briefly, running his fingers through his hair, enjoying the feeling of his toes in the wet sand.

A few feet from where they entered the water was some shade provided by a palm tree that had a major bend in its trunk. To Jake it looked like the most stereotypical picturesque palm, the one you'd see on posters, or cards advertising the Caribbean.

Its broad leaves gave enough shady coverage that he could sit with his feet in the water and not be worried about burning his light skin, or losing sight of Tawaya, still enjoying her exercise.

For a while Jake watched after the Yautja, hoping to catch her attention with a wave, but disappointingly she was oblivious to him and seemed entirely absorbed in her backstrokes.

Brushing his hair off his face Jake brought his knees upwards and rested his forehead against them, thinking quietly to himself for a brief moment.

Straightening back up he extended his legs back into the water and brought his hands to the back of his head before lying backwards onto the sand.

Taking a breath Jake relaxed and closed his eyes, content to listen to the steady sound of the tide.

Meanwhile back out in the water Tawaya was enjoying herself, swimming to her hearts content.

Mid-stroke she looked to her side and saw Jake was lying in the shade, his pale skin reflecting the ambient light, amplifying his already sickly disposition further.

Readjusting her trajectory she began swimming back towards the beach.

When the sand was close enough to walk on she planted her feet and strode out of the water.

Opening an eye Jake smiled at her as she exited the water close to him.

Flicking her dreadlocks off her shoulders she ran her fingers through the thick tendrils and shook, sending water everywhere.

Looking down at her human Tawaya stopped moving as she tilted her head, only now did she notice that he'd put his undergarment back on.

Pointing towards his crotch she furrowed her brow, "Why do you like covering yourself Little Jake?"

Opening his eyes again, he shrugged, "Why do you insist on being naked?"

She clicked her tusk in irritation, "Your tongue Little Jake…"

"I don't like being without boxers," he shrugged again, "I don't know, I don't like my dick hanging out in the breeze."

Looking her over he sat upwards and adjusted his arms, planting them both behind him as he leaned into them.

"Seriously though, why don't you wear clothes?"

Tawaya shook her head and looked into the jungle, taking a step forward she placed her hands on her hips as she moved her weight to her back leg.

"I wear what I need to wear." Tilting back to look at Jake she smiled, "When I need to wear it."

He scoffed and made a surprised laugh, "Is that so?"

He would have given her a hard time, but the way she said it was serious, and so somehow it didn't sound as forced and try-hard if someone else were to have said it.

She clicked at him in response.

"Okay then."

Moving his weight forward Jake brushed the sand of his hands and butt as he began to stand.

"You wouldn't happen to have any towels back in the ship would you?"

Walking beside Jake Tawaya shook her head.

"Ha, well air drying it is then."

"How do you feel Little Jake?"

He brushed some sand off the backs of his thighs and flicked his bang out of his eye before answering, "Fine now, tired still but, pretty good to be honest."

Passing him to make her way to the curved, bowing, palm tree shading them, Tawaya sat against the trunk and took a satisfied breath.

"Good."

She raised her leg and intently looked at Jake.

"Now you owe me."

He nodded, "well, I suppose I do…"

She shook her foot and spread her large toes, as if to say 'well get on with it'.

Kneeling in front of her Jake made an uneasy expression, "Don't get angry at me though, if I don't do a good job I mean. I've never been good at uh, feet…"

She closed her eyes once he took hold of her, purring loudly at the touch of his small fingers.

"Lighten up Little Jake… You still talk too much."


	13. Chapter 13

After massaging Tawaya's large alien feet till his hands were sore, Jake was finally relieved of his duty when the large amazon drew her legs back from his lap.

Spreading out her toes and rolling her ankles she stretched her legs outward before exhaling a satisfied purr.

Standing up she stretched again and closed her eyes.

Under his breath Jake whispered "Oh thank Christ…" as he straightened out his fingers and rubbed each palm.

Rising off his knees Jake was hit by a strong breeze off the water while wiping the sand from his damp skin.

Tawaya opened her eyes now and proceeded to breathe deeply; welcoming the cool air which was now grazing her nude body.

Jake however shivered and recoiled, making an involuntary "Eek!" as he did so.

The sound broke the quiet ambience of the coast and it made Tawaya snort a gruff laugh.

Turning his head upwards to view Tawaya's face, Jake did his best to stop a brief shiver as he spoke.

"C-can I go and get dressed now?"

Turning her view from the horizon the huntress looked downwards at her companion. She looked him over with an odd satisfaction before finally relenting and nodding in approval. Jake breathed a sigh of relief and motioned for her to come with him.

Obligingly she walked up beside him and closely together the odd couple made their way back to the un-cloaked vessel.

Once they were inside Jake tried to wipe as much water off his body as he could before he finally removed his damp underwear in defeat.

'Looks like I'll be going commando for the walk back…' he laughed.

Jake didn't like spending too much time outside of his clothes, and he didn't like being naked anywhere except in a hot shower, so he pulled his dry clothes on as fast as he could.

His pants were first to come on and he had to pull the tight material a little bit more than usual due to the small amount of water still on his calves and behind his knees making the jean material stick to him.

After tightening his belt he stooped over to grab his shirt. Shaking the light wrinkles out he had to turn it around a few more times than necessary in order to find the head hole, before finally realizing it was inside out.

Huffing, he pulled it right-side out and started again; shaking the wrinkles and positioning the hole over his head.

Once he had pulled the shirt over his damp hair he shook the garment again so that it fit his shoulders properly; the moisture still on his skin had caused the cotton to stick and bunch up along his torso in uncomfortable lumps.

Running a hand through his hair at the back of his head he moved his fingers side to side like a rake and scratched and straightened, roughly combing out a few knots and the wet spots.

Breathing a sigh he nodded to himself and looked down at his feet.

"Where are my socks?"

Without realizing it he had vocalized his thoughts while looking around the floor of the small cabin.

Behind him, Tawaya, who had been dressing as well, touched his shoulder and presented him the two, exceedingly diminutive, missing garments.

Jake couldn't help but snort a little laugh when he saw how comical it looked. Her large hand was extended towards him palm upwards, the two little socks draped across.

He smiled at her as he spoke, "thanks."

When he had finally pulled on the socks and tied his shoes back up Jake put his damp underwear in his back pocket.

After he stowed his wet under garment, he looked around for anything he may have forgotten; his wallet, a bracelet, or his phone.

Patting his pants he found that both his phone and wallet were still in their respective pockets. Then he quietly had an 'oh shit' moment as he drew his phone from the pocket to check for text messages and also to get a look at the time.

"What?" he exclaimed in confusion.

Out of a habit he had developed with his friends he hung on the 'A' syllable for a few beats longer than normal, the practise had started amongst Jake and his friends as a joke but had somehow developed into something he and his lads now did even when they didn't mean to.

"I can't believe it…" He continued.

He was surprised to see that it was nearly four o'clock and his screen displayed: eight unread text messages and three missed calls.

"Oh shit… my father is going to be pissed…"

His apprehension and shock quickly turned to unease and a growing terror.

'Oh no… How am I going to explain where I've been? What are they going to ask me?'

His mind raced as he worried about having to talk to his dad or his step-mother, then he thought about his alien.

'Wait, how are we going to meet after I make it back to the hotel? It's not like I can ask her for her phone number!'

'Oh what am I supposed to do? Shit!'

He looked away from his phone towards his companion.

Tawaya was lacing her thick sandals to the bottoms of her feet and was, at present, oblivious to Jake's troubled expression.

Turning his attention back to his hand he groaned and begrudgingly unlocked the phone.

Hearing his audible complaint Tawaya now looked over to Jake.

She was immediately concerned at his expression.

'Evidentially he hadn't received good news on his communicator' she thought.

The messages were from his sister, his father, and even his step-mother. Each was the same, with slight variation; 'where are you? What are you doing?' and 'Are you ok?'

Speedily he pressed 'call-back' on his father's number, since it was his dad who had made the three calls.

Jake's heart began beating heavily in dread and anticipation as the dial tone rang. His mouth became dry and he started to come up with what he was going to say.

Before he could however, the grave and imposing voice of Jake's father boomed over the line. Causing the boy's mental rehearsing to stop mid-thought, Jake without having yet come up with a script of what to say froze, wordlessly anticipating his father.

"Jake?"

Half in anxiety and half at a loss for words Jake's voice stopped in his mouth and no words came out even though he desperately wanted them to.

"Jake? Where are you? Are you ok?"

His father's voice was distressed.

'Say something!' his mind screamed at him.

Finally pushing noise past his lips he spoke; "Hey… Father… I'm here."

Relieved at hearing his son's voice, Jake's father quickly turned from relief to anger, he raised his voice but he made an effort to still maintain himself.

"Where in the _hell_ are you?"

Jake looked around, and bit his lip while he grimaced.

"You have a lot of talking to do, son."

When he was pressed or genuinely upset Jake's father often punctuated a sentence with the title or formal designation of the person he was talking to, so Jake was more often called 'son' then by his own name when he was in 'shit'.

"I…I…" he stuttered.

He knew that he father hated it when he did so; Jake knew that he hated when anybody was guilty of wasting time and this in turn made Jake more nervous and ultimately made his stuttering worse.

Jake was struggling to think of something to say, anything that would be an adequate explanation to dampen his father, and families, collective ire.

Finally he thought; 'just tell the truth'.

"I met a girl…" he finally expelled.

His father was about to say something before Jake spoke and exhaled audibly at what the boy had finally gotten out.

"You, met a girl?" He said, repeating the words.

Jake's father was perplexed, and his voice retained a slight degree of frustration but for the most part was now genuine surprise.

He exhaled again before continuing; "Ok, uh. Well, maybe you could have at least told one of us you'd be leaving the hotel?"

Jake bit his lip again and nodded out of habit while he spoke.

"I'm so sorry, it, it just slipped my mind."

His father took a deep breath and spoke quietly.

"Jake… I don't think I have to remind you how much worry you just made me go through."

The way he spoke Jake knew that his father was referring to his, incident. And immediately Jake shrunk, he brought an arm up to rub the side of his chest and he felt a huge wave of anxiety and slight panic well up in his lower abdomen.

"You… still haven't told… t-told Diana?"

"No I haven't, but I got really close to telling her just now."

"We've even gotten the hotel security officer to begin a search for you."

Jake held his breath and tried to calm himself down.

"Son, I don't think you realize how worried you've gotten me, gotten us… This is very serious; I nearly called the damn police."

"I-I'm sorry…"

Jake had to take a seat on the edge of Tawaya's cot; as his chest grew tighter.

"I forgot okay? I'm sorry…"

Jake didn't notice it but his voice had quavered, his father however did and even though Jake hadn't said much, his father could hear how distressed the boy was.

Changing his tone and speaking in a voice that Jake had only ever heard once before in his life his father spoke, quietly, calmly, and assuring:

"Jake? It's okay son. Where are you, I'll come get you, alone. I won't have Clair or Diana with me. This'll be okay, alright?"

Realizing he was now tearing up and audibly sobbing Jake wiped his cheeks and shook his head.

'Goddamn it! Why am I doing this? Fuck!'

"Jake?"

Interrupting his father Jake spoke, struggling to stay even voiced.

"No, no, I'll be back in a bit. D-don't worry… please."

There was no response from the other end.

"I'll be" Jake paused and dug his nails into his thigh, "I'll be fine, o-okay?"

There was a long pause before his father finally answered; "Okay."

His father continued, "I'll see you soon then?"

Tawaya was watching her young lover, perplexed, and deeply troubled at what Jake was suddenly struck by.

She was at a loss for words; she didn't know what to say or do. The simple fact was that she had never seen something like this before; such a display of emotion and fragility.

"Yeah… See you soon."

Jake hung up the phone and shook his head again before wiping his face and slowly looking towards her.

"I… uh… I've got to go back Tawaya."

She stood stoically, motionless.

"I'm sorry… I, uh, I don't know what came over me. I don't feel too good right now, ha…"

She took a step forwards and touched his arm.

"I… uh." He trailed off and looked away.

She rubbed his forearm and leant forwards.

"Are you okay Little Jake?"

He nodded at first, but then tightly he clenched his jaw.

Releasing his tightly clenched teeth he drew a deep breath and shrugged, before speaking in an exacerbated voice.

"I don't know…"

Tawaya wrapped her fingers easily around Jake's arm and held it tightly.

She didn't say anything but it was helpful all the same.

"I will take you back Little Jake."

He took a breath and nodded.

Standing up from her knelt position Tawaya turned towards the cabin door before Jake's voice made her pause.

"I want to see you again…"

She turned back to look at his exceedingly worried face.

"You will Little Jake, I'm not far."

He let out a sigh-laugh. His worry had lightened a little, and his chest felt relieved but he felt quite embarrassed for making such a big deal out of it all.

He nodded and laughed, mostly it was because of his nerves but to a certain degree it was also directed at himself.

"Okay… Thank you…"

She furrowed her brow before leaving the room.

Tensely Jake put his phone back into his pocket and collected his thoughts.

Slowly he stood up and made his way after Tawaya, making sure to watch his footing as he sluggishly walked through the small vessel.

'Why did I have to ruin everything with my bullshit?' he thought.

Tawaya had the same concerned expression on her face as before when he exited the ship and walked down the ramp to the sand below.

'Fucking hell, why am I always such a fuck up?'

As if she could read his thoughts Tawaya broke the ambience.

"Jake if you are ill it is okay. I do not," she paused, looking for the right word. "I know not the word I seek, but, I…"

Jake looked up earnestly, hanging on each word the Amazonian alien spoke.

"I think you understand me…" she finally said, frustrated at not being able to completely relay her thoughts to words.

He nodded and she made a curt 'Hmph' in affirmation.

"Then I will speak no more about it."

She held out her hand and Jake obligingly put his in hers.

"I shall take you back to your family, you will set things right, and this will be over. Yes?"

He took a breath and nodded again.

She eyed him and roared in frustration.

"I need you to speak like a male!"

Jake's eyes widened immediately and he nodded emphatically as he spoke.

"Y-yes! Okay!"

She eyed him intensely, and leaned forwards "Louder."

He leaned back from her and swallowed.

"Yes!"

She turned from him and roared into the jungle before turning back to speak to him, "Louder! Little Jake!"

She let go of his hand and bent her knees, lowering her center of gravity into a primal, aggressive stance, roaring and shaking her head, making her dreadlocks wave back and forth.

Jake's chest was tight and his heart was beating faster and faster, he couldn't help but feel fear at her display but somehow he was able to defy the panic in his mind and body and he followed her example and yelled.

" _Yes!_ "

She nodded in approval and pointed out towards the water.

"Again!"

Turning Jake felt his consciousness take a step backwards as his body released the pent up emotion.

Following her direction he turned towards the water and yelled again.

Stepping behind him Tawaya took hold of his arms and held them above his head.

Instead of speaking English she spoke in her own tongue, but the way she spoke was the same as earlier and Jake knew, somehow, she had said 'again'.

He complied and did it again, though this time he added more emphasis to it and changed the word.

"Fuck, you!" he roared at the top of his lungs.

He was breathing heavily and did it again.

The next go was different and he punctuated the string of profanity with a primal and guttural yell.

He did this a few more times and with each go through he felt a slight weight off his chest.

After the last yell his arms dropped to his sides as he stood back up. His breathing was laboured and his hands shook.

He'd never been so loud in all his life, and he realized that after it all his mind was actually clearer. The cost however was that he now felt more tired and his throat felt a little raw.

But that he agreed with himself that it was a small price to pay for the relief it had provided.

He turned to his side to see Tawaya looking intently at him, her face with its alien features seemingly beamed approval while simultaneously asking; 'better?' To which he responded in between his shallow breaths.

"I… ha, if I had of known… how helpful that would have been I… I would have done that ages ago…"

Tawaya gruffly laughed and wrapped her arm along Jake's shoulder.

At the end of her laugh her expression changed and she let go of his shoulder while the two began walking under the forest canopy.

"Are you alright now my Little Jake?"

Walking purposely into Tawaya's side Jake touched her skin and nudged his head into her arm.

He wrapped his arms around her thick waist.

"Right now?" he paused as they took a few quiet steps together. "Yeah I think so…"

He looked up at her and continued "Thank you."

Jake let go of her and resumed a normal posture.

After a few paces Tawaya spoke, and uncharacteristically for a Yautja she had made a joke: "You won't trip this time?"

The boy laughed as the two became shaded by the palms overhead.

"I'll try, but I make no promises."


	14. Chapter 14

The journey back to the hotel was easier and seemed faster to Jake. But it was markedly different.

For one Tawaya was beside Jake and stayed semi-glued to his hip. Evidentially her worry was such that she was not going to be anywhere other than arms-reach of her little human until he was safely discharged back to 'his world'.

The other major difference was that Tawaya was much more vocal then during their first walk together.

One of the funniest aspects of their talking was that for the most part Jake let her direct the conversation, and he tried his best to not laugh at her sometimes. At one point for over ten minutes she talked about meat, cooking, and food.

She explained that on some hunts it was the objective to get a certain exotic game-meat, and those other times were purely for the sport and the trophies and so on.

But Jake wasn't really into hunting, nor was any of his close family, so when she talked about it he struggled to say anything other than the occasional question which put the 'ball' back in Tawaya's court and allowed her to talk more about it generally.

Eventually she talked about the time which she briefly mentioned to Jake when she had hunted a Lion here on earth. After her story Jake recalled something that he thought Tawaya might find interesting.

Clearing his throat Jake spoke up in the brief quiet since she finished her little tale. "Obviously I don't hunt, like you, or, ha, at all really."

Tawaya looked at him as he continued.

"But I do have a bit of a story,"

Tawaya was quite peeked, "Really? This is good; it is a practise which we share, humans and us" She pointed proudly at herself "hunting."

Jake nodded and smiled uneasily at her enthusiasm, her strength and eagerness to kill shit was still unsettling. Collecting himself he continued.

"There was this one time my father told me about, this was a really long time ago when I was younger, like." He laughed "When I was this little."

He held his hand out a few feet off the ground, about at his waist.

"Anyway, he told me this the day after it happened over the phone. He was in Africa representing his company or whatever and he was meeting this other businessman."

Tawaya's brow furrowed, 'I need to ask him what it is his people 'do' when he says this 'business' talk…'

"For the meeting my father stayed at this guy's private estate in, Kenya I think, and while they were talking and stuff the guy invites my father to join him on a safari. He thought he meant just a look and take pictures kind of safari, but no the guy brings some rifles and his gun-porter and all that stuff."

Jake looked up, making sure he was doing a good job of telling the story and that his Yautja was paying attention. Though it had to do with the domain of predatory activity and so Tawaya was quite attentive.

The boy continued, "Then they get out there on this one stretch of plain and the guy tells my father that there's been this lion couple or a solo male who's been killing a large number of this guy's livestock."

He stopped and brought a hand to his head as he struggled to remember.

"Oh hell… I'm not good at this. Ugh, basically he thought they could talk, or bond, or whatever, for this business deal over hunting a literal lion. My father, he's not really the hunting type and he's like 'what am I supposed to do here?'" Jake laughed.

As they walked he paused while they stepped over a fallen log and some thick underbrush.

"So they're out there in this place tracking a lion and all that… Well, heh, anyway I forget most of it but the point is they went out trying to hunt a lion and they finally ended up shooting an Antelope or Impala or something and the two of them were scared shitless cause once they actually got out of the car it was completely different you know?"

Jake's smiling and jovial air dissipated rather quickly, he'd always thought the anecdote was really funny but, he became both embarrassed and disappointed that Tawaya didn't have at all the reaction he was hoping for, or expecting.

Though it was mostly due to the fact that he botched it and made himself sound like an idiot.

"I suppose, it's a little funnier when he told it…"

'Ugh… now I feel like fucking dumbass…' he thought.

Obviously a lot of things were going to be lost in translation with the alien, so even if he had of been a better story teller it didn't necessarily mean the result would be different.

While it was such a trivial thing but Jake couldn't help but take on one of his habitual expressions, a look of, embarrassed, dejection.

But it wasn't like Tawaya couldn't tell. It irritated her, she had hoped that their earlier 'discussion' would have sapped his desire to mope, but evidentially he still needed work.

She was thinking about the situation, she could tell he was embarrassed or something similar, and begrudgingly she remembered when she had suffered something which was similar. The large and imposing Yautja shuddered and cringed.

Jake heard her move oddly and he heard her make a low whinny or sneeze-like sound and he looked up.

"Ha, what was that?" he asked.

She looked down, realising he had seen her expression and that she had actually made noise.

"I just remembered something… Not exactly like what you told me but…" She made a regretful sigh.

Eventually she relented and her shoulders and head moved as if to say 'Fine'.

"I was meeting with my clan, some of my clan." She took a breath and sighed again. "There was this one member, I will not say his name, but he was after me."

Jake furrowed his brow, "After you?"

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

Shaking his head Jake wanted to hit himself for being so stupid, _again._

"Continue…" he said while clutching his temple.

"He had much honour and he was bold and…"

Jake felt awkward hearing these details and out of pain he finally interrupted her "… so what did he do?"

Tawaya failed to notice Jake's un-comfort, but obliged at his insistence.

"Oh yes, well. We were doing a dance and we were both enjoying wine and I said…" She laughed but then abruptly stopped.

She brought one of her fingers to her mouth and stroked her tusk as she thought.

"I said…"

Jake looked at her as she struggled to think.

"It's been so long… I don't know what was funny about it anymore…"

Jake snorted.

"Really?" he laughed a little and continued, "Well that went nowhere."

Tawaya furrowed her brow as she was now disappointed. 'What did I say that night?' she began struggling to think and remember.

Jake spoke up again "Are there any other stories about your exes that I should know? Preferably ones that make sense, ha!"

She looked at him, 'Exes?' she thought.

"Any that treated you poorly I've got to beat up?" He laughed again.

"What is _'exes'_ Little Jake?"

"Oh, exes are like. An ex-boyfriend, like… an ex is something that used to be something."

He looked around for a pertinent example to help illustrate.

Pointing at a tree he continued, "If I were to burn a tree you could then call it an ex-tree afterwards. So if you are with someone they're your boyfriend or girlfriend or husband… partner, whatever, after that if you, I don't know, break up or something they become your _ex-partner_ or so on."

Tawaya nodded, "Ah…"

Then Jake laughed and continued, "So are there any crazy Yautja that might lose it if they see you with a little human?" He shook his head and giggled.

"Man I thought it was bad in an interracial relationship, but this is probably completely out of the ballpark in comparison."

Tawaya's thoughts went for a spin after what he said. She had thought that their interaction might have been against the rules, the unspoken rules, before and it worried her, but at the time she first thought that she was thinking about other things too.

But now when he had actually said out loud what she'd previously thought she felt an incredible fear and pain in her mind.

What would happen to her if _anyone_ found out?

Or him

Quietly Tawaya began to withdraw from the moment as her thoughts became more troubled.

Jake however came up with another question to ask her.

"Tawaya," he paused, "Am I the first human you've met?"

It was a naïve question. Jake knew she mentioned that she 'people watched', but he had no idea what Yautja usually did in their interactions with humans.

Numbly she shook her head in response.

"Oh. Really?" Jake looked at her in surprise.

"How often or like… hmm hang on." He thought on how best to phrase his question. "How much interaction do you guys do with humans? Like… I mean you're an alien! It's still so unbelievable…"

Her voice seemed quieter, as she responded. "Not that much Little Jake." She thought it best to not really answer him.

Regardless of all this though the pair continued walking.

Eventually they became quiet, but Jake didn't really notice, nor did he find an issue with it. This time around it wasn't too hot and the sound of the birds and ambience didn't annoy him.

But if Jake had of been paying closer attention he would have noticed that she was now looking at him _oddly_.

'Telling Little Jake I've killed humans before would probably not be wise…'

Telling him, this is wrong is probably not either…' she thought and shook her head.

As she thought Jake started speaking up again, but she was no longer paying attention to what the boy was saying.

'This is not supposed to be.' A voice said in her head. 'We are not compatible, we are not the same. We are different. And we kill each other.'

'This needs to end.' She thought.

Her chest became heavy and an insidious tear in her stomach began to bother her. Then a horrible thought came to her and she couldn't help but agree; 'This has all been a mistake.'

She looked at his neck. His small and thin body wouldn't put up a fight to her. She knew that she could do what needs to be done, leave here and never have to think or worry about this again. She wouldn't have to fear any reprisal from another Yautja, the sin on her honour would be wiped away.

It would be an easy move of her bare hands, or a quick use of the knife.

She knew where to hit, he wouldn't see it coming and it wouldn't hurt. It would be an honourable and merciful option.

She nodded.

This xenophilic experience was at its end and part of her was resolved to finish it.

 _But… he's…_

She closed her eyes for a beat, and part of her took over. Demanding that she not think any more about it; demanding that she not change her mind.

Fear, and honour… and other indefinable forces overrode her personal convictions and demanded she kill the boy and forget about it all.

Putting a hand on her hip she felt along her belt and eventually took hold of one of her knives drawing it she was resolved and prepared to do it.

Tawaya felt like she was being automated by something that just so happened to be inside her head, directing her actions.

She stopped walking alongside him and he took two paces ahead of her before he realized she was no longer beside him. He was so focused on his thoughts or what he was saying that it took him longer to realise it but he still didn't expect anything.

He was still talking away, though this whole time Tawaya couldn't hear him.

She could only hear the jungle ambience muffled by the loudness of her heartbeat in her ears.

 _Ba-bump, Ba-bump_

The familiar sound before she delivered a killing strike.

Then he turned around to look at her, and he finished what he was saying. Coyly he looked to the side while smiling, and then he looked back up and into her eyes.

He stopped her train of thought.

Those bright, light blue, eyes looking back at her were framed and made brighter by the dark circles of makeup around them and that was made darker by the light colour of his skin.

The adrenaline in her system made his movements slower to her perception.

Even his earnest facial expression added to the sight before her, and to Tawaya he just appeared to be moving slowly, as if he were underwater.

Wetting his lips and clicking his piercings he smiled at her again before speaking, and as he did so a tough shot went through her chest.

 _I can't do it…_

Her hand let go of the blade handle and she looked back at him before he repeated himself and asked; "You okay?"

She looked around and up into the canopy.

"You seem like you were thinking about something, or you were distracted or, I don't know."

She took a few steps forwards and passed him, "Your kin are expecting you."

Jake looked at her uneasily, her demeanour had entirely changed. But he didn't know why or what to say, so quietly he walked after her.

It was a few minutes more of this new quiet till Jake saw the foliage begin to thin in front of them.

Then finally he could see the faint glimmers of buildings and man-made structure.

His chest jumped up in excitement, and he was relieved of an anxiety he didn't realise he had, being so far from the familiar, and also being entirely dependent on something he didn't truly know, were both very powerful stressors.

Now, so close to his temporary home, civilization, his family, the familiarity of asphalt and concrete.

The idea of no longer being surrounded by stifling and unfamiliar nature was so relieving to Jake he made a little noise, a shriek or an eek of excitement and happiness that he was out of the rainforest.

He grabbed hold of Tawaya's arm and hugged it tightly, grateful that she'd led him back.

Letting go of her large arm he beamed a smile towards her and then turned to jump over the underbrush in front of them.

Running towards the edge of the thick canopy they were under Jake was breathing deeply and he felt nothing but a peculiar sense of happiness. The adventure for the day was over.

Passing the border of forest-floor and manicured grass Jake enjoyed the freedom and the rain of sunlight now pouring down on him. The best part, he thought, was that it wasn't blocked by anything coloured green anymore.

He threw his head back and closed his eyes while extending both his arms out.

He did a pirouette or two with arms out palms up before finally falling down on the grass.

"So… Tawaya, when will I see you again?"

At the edge of the trees and flora, Tawaya stood quietly watching all around.

Finally looking down at the boy she responded. "In two days Jake. I will see you here."

Jake's head rose off the grass and then he quickly stood.

"Okay, two days?"

She nodded, and looked away from him.

Intensely her eyes scanned the surroundings for unwanted observers.

Walking back up to her Jake noticed her changed attitude. She wasn't just being or acting cautious, she seemed off for some reason.

"Hey, so can I hug you?"

Tawaya's expression softened and she looked down at him.

'Of course…' she thought and wanted to say. But she felt badly, she felt fearful, and dirty.

Eventually she blurted out "Yes you may"

Jake smiled at her, and he wrapped his arms around her waist, tightly squeezing her as she firmly gripped him back.

"Go now, your blood is waiting for you…"

Jake looked up at her and nodded, he didn't want to let her go but he knew he had to.

"Okay… Just, don't forget to come back okay?"

She shook her head, "I won't."

He walked towards the hotel and periodically looked back at her after a few steps.

Eventually he looked and she had gone. There wasn't a branch moving or anything to indicate she had walked away, she simply faded away into the green and dark backdrop of the jungle.

Jake would have thought more about it, and likely would have tried to see where or how she'd gone away if he had the time, but he didn't.

The sooner he got back to his family the better, the sooner he explain things and make his appearance the easier it would be on him in the short-term.

'God I hope I don't get in shit when I get in there…'

Making his way from the side of the hotel's grounds Jake looked for a side entrance or somewhere to enter the complex without having to go through the lobby.

He could already feel the worry about so many people looking at him as he entered growing in his chest.

The side of the hotel he was approaching didn't have anything other than a service entrance which only opened from the inside, and of course was labeled 'employees only' in English Spanish and French.

By now he had walked onto the raised concrete sidewalk which bordered the whole car park, casually looking from side to side he was able to make out what he immediately recognized as the rental vehicle that they had driven from the island's airport in.

Then he saw his first person since the morning.

Across the lot stood a tall, buff, Hispanic man with tightly cropped hair and a short sleeved dress shirt. He had a pair of Ray-Ban's aviators or a similar brand. All together he looked like a real mean and tough kind of guy.

He hadn't noticed Jake yet but when his head turned and he did he immediately brought a walkie-talkie to his mouth.

'Shit… I bet he's literally looking for me right now.'

Moving the walkie-talkie back to his belt the large sun-glassed guy began walking, quickly, towards Jake.

"Tu niño! You are Jake, yes?"

Speaking up Jake responded.

"Si, duh?" His sarcastic tone did not have the desired comedic effect he was looking for.

A few feet away from him now, the man raised a hand and pointed forcefully at Jake.

"You think you're funny? Trying to be cute here? I do not have time to play little games you puta blanca."

The guy got closer to Jake and put his hand onto his neck, gripping him hard and pulling a lot of his hair at the same time.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Jake exclaimed.

With his hand on his neck the man started walking back to where he was previously standing.

After passing his previous post he started towards the front of the hotel.

"I get to do two things on this job I like, getting pussy on the beach and free booze. So spending my entire shift looking for a stupid rich kid is not one of them… Increible…"

"Dude! Let go of my hair!"

"Que? No niño, until we're in the building I 'aint letting go of you."

The guy had a grip like steel and Jake wasn't making it easier on himself.

"You're pulling my hair out you asshole!"

They were walking into the main entrance of the hotel now; the doormen opened the large double doors and the cool air-conditioning of the large lobby greeted the two quick moving males.

Only when they were in front of the concierge desk to the side of the lobby did the Hispanic man let go of Jake. Then his voice changed and he spoke with a level of refinement he didn't have at all earlier.

"Señor, aquí está tu hijo."

Finally free to move his head around Jake turned to face his aggressor and shot him a venomous look. The man removed his sunglasses and stared Jake down.

He had emerald coloured irises and under his right eye was an inch long, very deep, scar.

Of course his dark and intense stare coupled with his ugly scar instantly caused Jake to back down and step away from him.

Then a voice spoke, it was the person that the Hispanic man had previously addressed.

"Muchas gracias, aquí, por tu problema."

Jake's father spoke Spanish too apparently…

The boy slowly turned from the man to face his father, who was holding out a small, but thick, envelope.

Taking the envelope the man bowed his head and acknowledged his patron. "Señor." Then he turned to leave.

Jake's leg started to shake a little as he looked up at his dad. He was wearing a light blue dress shirt, and a pair of white linen pants, one of his few 'casual' outfits. His face was stoic and gave no indicator of relief, or of anger, or even of disappointment. It was just his regular, stoic, resting expression.

The lobby was silent after the departure of the Hispanic man, and his footsteps echoed awkwardly as the only sound other than the spinning of the overhead ceiling fans.

A strategy Jake's father often employed was allowing another to speak first, after which he'd swiftly and skillfully take command of the conversation.

And so the silence grew between them, until finally, as the concierge returned to the desk, Jake spoke.

"H-hey…"

His father looked to either side of the lobby and nodded to the concierge before turning to walk away.

He took a few paces before turning to see Jake's dumbstruck face.

Then he waved, indicating that Jake was to follow him.

Following a few steps behind, father and son turned out of the lobby and down the elevator hall.

As soon as they were out of sight of the concierge and the check-in clerk Jake's father spoke to him.

"A girl you said?"

Jake swallowed his apprehension and nodded, "Yeah, she and I-"

"And what the, _fuck_ , were you two doing? Huh? Some kind of…" He paused, trying to collect himself. "Of suicide-pact thing? That's if she's even real."

Jake shook his head and clenched his teeth tightly, his leg started shaking again.

"N-no father… It's n-not like that!"

The man looked at his son intently; his eyes seemed to scrutinize Jake's very thoughts.

"Well… regardless, you will _not_ be doing that again, do you understand me?"

Jake looked downwards and nodded.

Taking a step closer to his son, Jake's father took hold of his chin and forced him to look back up at him.

"I… I won't do that again."

He nodded in agreement, "If you go anywhere Jake you will; tell, text, or call your mother or myself."

Jake nodded again and his father released his chin.

In his head he had a petulant thought cross his mind, 'she's not my mother' but of course he knew far better than to voice it and silently he leaned back against the wall.

Taking a breath Jake's father stepped back from his son and clicked the nearby elevator button.

"We're going back up to the suite, you're changing and then we're going to go to dinner as a family."

Jake quietly nodded.

"You reek of sweat and salt…" The man scoffed and made a half-enthused chuckle, "Where did you go?"

Clearing his throat the boy spoke up, "We, uh, we went on a hike to this private beach she knew about. It was through the forest a bit so…"

His father nodded and pursed his lips, "Sounds nice…"

"How… how many people were looking for me? And, who was that big asshole who was breaking my neck earlier?"

The man nodded, "About three or four staff were specifically looking for you. They were security types like him."

Jake pushed out his lips and looked down shamefully.

"That one there, the one you called an asshole, is the head of the security for not only the hotel but this whole section of the island."

Beside them they heard a 'ding' and one of the several brass double doors down the hall opened.

Stepping in first Jake's father spoke again, unfazed.

"Come on, I'm not waiting any longer for you."

The boy pushed himself off the wall and quickly followed his dad into the small, intimate, quarters of the elevator.

But as soon as the doors closed his dad immediately lost his stoic expression and slapped Jake right across the jaw.

The strike stunned him and he was so surprised and blindsided by it he was frozen.

As fast as he hit him the man then wrapped his arms around Jake and pulled him tightly into his chest.

His father was breathing erratically and he was actually emotional.

Through the muffling of material Jake heard his father pour out words in a way he'd never heard before in his life.

"Jake, don't you ever do that again! Don't ever do that! I thought I lost you goddamn it!" He took a shallow breath, "I thought I lost my stupid boy…"

Jake was in shock from what he was hearing and from the earlier slap but he didn't know what to do or say back.

The truth was he didn't realise how much his father actually cared.

As fast as the embrace came, it felt over far too quickly for Jake and his father seemed to push the boy away from him as he stood up and straightened out his shirt. But as he looked down at his blue, pattern less, shirt two black, wet, smudge spots glared back up at him and he couldn't help but anxiously laugh.

Jake looked up with his mouth slightly open as his dad put his hand on his son's shoulder and spoke to him earnestly;

"It's going to be okay."


	15. Chapter 15

Tawaya had since donned her mask after seeing her human was safely out of her hands.

She stole as many looks at Jake as he walked away as she could, but she eventually activated her camouflage and leapt upwards into the high and strong branches of the closest tree.

But there was something amiss here…

And it wasn't her earlier discomfort regarding Jake. It was something else; a strange feeling was in the air. She could smell something, it was a burnt smell.

Almost like a primate she began jumping and swinging from branch to branch, occasionally having to dig her claws and the thick barbs on her sandals into the trunks to ensure a good grip.

She leapt and swung towards the direction of the smell, wracking her brain as to what it could be.

It was so familiar, but she just couldn't place it.

The closer she came to the source the stronger it became.

Pausing on a low hanging branch she opened her wrist computer and enhanced the analytical range of the atmospheric sensor in her helmet.

Determined to localise the source she also changed the view in her visor to focus on the smell and physically display it.

The now visible, but thin, fog in her visor lead towards the beach behind the hotel complex. The ever present worry of being spotted nagged at her but she had to find out what was the cause.

Moving from tree to tree she started to see a larger concentration of the strong scent in a large leaning tree. There was a bend in the top branches that would be perfect for a hunting blind.

She got a few branches closer and then she began to hear it.

Lots of screaming started to come from the beach.

At first it was one voice, and then it became a chorus. Seemingly all the females on the beach started to scream, the males yelled and there was some screaming too, quickly it turned into a chaos of noise.

Tawaya furrowed her brow, her current perch was a poor position and she couldn't see anything for the foliage and her lower elevation.

'What's causing such a panic?' she thought.

She resolved to jump to the positon that the smell was concentrated on.

Then it came to her mid-flight.

 _Plasma_

That's what it was!

She landed on the perch and could now see the beach perfectly.

The chaos on the beach was caused from something in the surf. A human male was face down in the water, the females in his vicinity had scattered and many of the people in the water were wadding out, or running from the beach into the hotel.

There were some males running to aid the man face down in the water, and others were scanning the treeline, but there was only one who looked concerning to Tawaya.

A large, dark-skinned, and muscular male seemed to look directly at her position, his eyes were covered by black glasses, but it felt like they had locked gazes.

After a second or two the man's gaze moved away and he began directing the men who were aiding the downed male in the water.

Amidst the crowd running into the hotel the three who pulled the man from the water plus the dark skinned one who looked at Tawaya were the calmest.

The man who they pulled from the water was nude save for a small article covering his groin.

He was limp in the arms of the men carrying him, and when they exited the water Tawaya saw why: The back of his head had been blown open, gore and viscera leaked down his back; he was certainly dead.

'He was shot by a plasma bolt…' Tawaya thought.

Immediately she drew the only real weapon she had on her; her knife, and she began looking for the other Yautja.

She wasn't thinking now, only acting, instinct and intuition.

It didn't make sense, but she was looking for any immediate threat.

'It was definitely the smell of plasma, but why? Who else is here?'

Then in the distance she heard it; a Yautja growl ticked and crackled in the dark of the jungle.

A taunt…

Tawaya growled back and leapt from the perch after the noise.

'A challenge…' she thought, but a worry crossed her mind, 'I should never have disarmed so liberally!' she cursed herself and quickly began thinking.

'I need to get to my ship and re-arm.'

She dropped to the jungle floor and began sprinting.

'So stupid… I should have known it was plasma!"

Anger began to well in her chest, though she did her best to focus on thinking.

'But why kill a weaponless human, from this distance, and with so many witnesses?'

She switched her visor back to the clear visible spectrum and made her way in the direction of her ship.

'Unless… That human wasn't the target.'

She dug her heels in and stopped. 'It was to draw me out.'

Immediately she adopted a fighting stance and began to turn and look around her in a circle. Bearing her knife upwards she kept her ears and eyes open.

Using the in-mask interface she clicked her mandibles along the buttons and switched through the different vision modes, rotating between thermal, ultraviolet, and electromagnetic.

She couldn't pick up anything other than some vague, dissipating, heat signatures.

If her opponent was cloaked and close by she should have seen them via their electromagnetic footprint by now.

It was unsettling, but also exciting; a true challenge.

From the beach she could hear yelling and voices which were nothing like the panicked people that were in the water, the voices yelling now were precise and orderly.

In the distance she heard the Yautja taunt again.

'I do not like being played with…' she growled.

She sheathed her blade and climbed up the nearest tree.

Parting some of the foliage in her way she could see the humans who'd entered the jungle quickly enclosing on the tree that was the previous Yautja's perch.

Leading them was the muscular dark skinned man who seemed to have spotted her from the beach.

Each of the men had a weapon in their hands and they moved in a disciplined formation.

"Quédate apretado! Ojos abiertos! Barre ese ángulo."

She flipped open her wrist computer and activated her translator, the in-mask application started working for her and in her head she began mimicking the voice as it played. 'Stay tight. Eyes open. Sweep that angle.'

Watching him intently the man continued,

"Keep tight, watch your lines of fire. We're looking for one, maybe two men; a shooter, and potentially a spotter."

Another man chimed up, "Clear left, no tracks, no sign of broken leaves or footpaths."

Then from the right another; "Clear right, no signs Sir."

"I saw one; they had rapid movement, and were camouflaged. Sweep again, Perez I want you up that tree in that nest."

"Sir," The one called Perez began climbing the tree in question and skillfully demonstrated his prowess. "Sir, there are scratches and rip marks in the trunk and branches."

The leader of this small five man group nodded and looked back down to his men.

"Upwards, begin looking up, scan those trees. No tracks on the ground means; they're using the trees."

The men all nodded and started looking upwards, training their weapons and eyes meticulously from tree top to tree top.

Perez had now climbed to the perch.

"Sir, there's no casing, but there was definitely someone up here. There's a clear line of sight to the beach, and there's multiple trees to leap to from here for egress."

The leader nodded and below Tawaya one of the men close to her chimed in, "Sir! Scratch marks here different from the others, there's two!"

Tawaya was fascinated, these men were quick… almost too quick. But she was too close, she had to get to her ship and get armed.

There was another Yautja out there, and these men now knew what to look for.

Observing the men quickly she timed her jump to a moment when their eyes were all looking away from her position.

Her impact on the tree she jumped to, however, was far less graceful than she had hoped, and her claws and barbs made loud scratches which immediately drew the attention of the men below.

Each man began talking at once and over each other, the translator in Tawaya's mask couldn't isolate everything they were saying and so the audio layers started covering each other.

"There! Up that one!"

"What which one?" "I don't see!"

"Contact! Contact? Which tree? Focus-damn it!"

The man closest to Tawaya fired at her previous position; despite being cloaked the man's eyes were evidentially extremely good.

"Cease fire!" "Hold your fire! Is the target visible?"

Tawaya didn't turn around, and she didn't stop. Continuing to jump she focused only on getting back to her vessel.

Behind her the voices grew fainter but she could make out the tail-end of something.

"Running that general direction, fast… It was large. Single target." He breathed deeply, "I… I don't know what it was."

Tawaya kept swinging, bounding from foot to foot as her body's musculature performed to the best of their ability.

When she couldn't hear the humans anymore she slowed a little, but that other Yautja could be anywhere and she had to be wary.

She had no idea about how this hunter performed, though she did try to get into his mind.

She doubted that he'd attack her now. But at the same time he had the upper hand completely, he was fast, his camouflage was possibly a different tech than hers, and he wasn't afraid to utilize his plasma-caster.

Tawaya was conflicted, but she couldn't determine for sure what this hunter was after.

She paused for a moment and opened her wrist computer, to assess the distance from her position to her ship.

Despite all her progress she still had quite a way to go.

Flipping the console closed she started back to jumping and kept her head on a swivel. At the same time she made sure to keep rotating through her mask's vision settings.

'Just in case he slips up…' She thought.

After a few minutes of moving through the jungle Tawaya started to line up with the footpath she and Jake had taken earlier.

'Not good' she thought. 'This is too predictable; I would have trapped these trees and this path.'

She halted and clung tightly to the side of the tree she was in.

'Where are you?' she thought.

To her right she was about to receive an answer.

She heard a click that was not part of the natural jungle ambience, it was purely metallic.

Leaping without a second's hesitation she avoided the fired net-gun. The tight winding metal grid wrapped itself around the tree she was just in and harmlessly embedded itself into the wood.

In frustration at having missed their target the hidden Yautja growled and crackled.

She landed on the forest floor and pivoted to face the direction the net had been fired from, punctuating her movement with a loud roar and aggressive display.

Foliage in front of her parted quickly as her opponent ran towards her, but the speed that the cloaked Yautja was now moving caused his camouflage to distort and bend awkwardly, revealing his general shape and outline.

Tawaya's camouflage was evidentially superfluous to him; he was seemingly able to see her plainly.

The hunter began raising his gauntlet arm to aim at Tawaya.

She began running towards him and anticipated him to fire darts, knives, or a similar projectile so she added a bobbing pattern to her run; moving her head and torso from side to side in an offbeat.

A pneumatic hiss indicated he'd fired, and two barbed dagger-like blades whipped towards Tawaya.

One passed her narrowly, and the other embedded itself into the side of her abdomen.

She growled at the initial pain, but she was too focused to think about the wound right now.

She raised her right hand and readied the blade to strike while she prepared a feint with her left fist.

Her cloaked opponent dropped lowly.

The two were now within striking distance of each other.

To better direct her blow Tawaya slowed her momentum, her attacker however was still going full speed and now in a low angle he surprised her by immediately going for a tackle.

Bringing her blade downwards the knife hit and dug into a section of metal armour attached to the hunter's shoulder, and she was unable to hit him with her left fist.

The impact to her unarmoured stomach winded and threw Tawaya off balance.

The two were now communicating in primal growls, clicks, and hisses as they began a pushing game.

Tawaya brought her elbow down again and again on the middle of his unarmoured right shoulder blade, at the same time her attacker punched and continued to hammer her wounded side.

Each hit elicited a howl of pain from Tawaya.

The angle she was at was too acute and she couldn't leverage enough distance to make her elbow hits anything more than a nuisance.

She instead began bringing up her knees, one after the other.

All she had to do was dislodge his grapple.

He roared in frustration as the hits to his abdomen and chest continued despite his hits to her side.

Combining the knee hits with her elbow she also brought down her knife in the same spot on his shoulder armour that she could reach.

Though his body was still cloaked she tried to hit the same spot with the knife.

The piercing of the armour became more audible with each hit.

Breaking the grapple Tawaya's attacker brought his head up forcefully and made the crest of his helmet collide with the bottom of hers.

The hit was disorienting but the two Yautja were now no longer locked together.

Her attacker now moved to the side and raised an arm to strike her helmet and continue the feeling of disorientation.

She brought her left arm to block while she tried to strike at him with her knife in a wide slash.

Even if she didn't hit him she'd force him to move back, and give her room to reposition.

His fist collided with her wrist and then glanced off her shoulder.

He didn't try to dodge her slash and it collided with his chest.

Half of the blade's attack harmlessly scratched a deep gash into his armour while the other half opened a long cut down his abdomen, creating a visible green blood streak across his otherwise still-invisible body.

He cried out in pain and staggered backwards, and invisible hand clutched his wound and spread the blood over his palm.

Tawaya growled and pressed her attack, now on the offense she had a better judge of her opponent.

His strategy for fighting another Yautja was entirely rudimentary, and while he was well armoured he had a rookie's disregard or obliviousness for avoiding an incoming strike.

And he had a low pain tolerance.

She was dealing with a very inexperienced hunter.

Switching the blade in her hand she began doing backward slashes in combination with punches and hand strikes with both her right and left.

He was quick though, very quick. After her initial slash she was unable to hit him with a second wound.

He skillfully stepped back over rocks and branches, nimbly performing expert footwork as he leaned and avoided her attacks.

Mid strike he found an opening and brought his leg up to kick across and impact Tawaya's wounded side.

The pain after each strike was greater than the previous and it was enough to cut her advance short.

Recoiling to defend herself the cloaked opponent now took on the attack and began striking, his blows hit her chest and her helmet.

She extended her left arm between his attacks and was able to grip his right shoulder pauldron; she got enough of a solid hold and pulled downwards as hard as she could.

The action was distracting enough that she got a brief reprieve from being hit and was able to land a real stab with her, comparatively, small blade.

The angle she brought the blade down on towards his chest was enough to penetrate his upper breast-plate armour.

His immediate kick and strikes at her in pain at being hit, and the tight grip of the penetrated armour forced Tawaya to relinquish her grasp on her only weapon.

The uncloaked blade hovered in mid-air and the wound it inflicted began to leak the bright green of Yautja blood. Tawaya judged that it had to be lodged about an inch or so past his plate.

The two large hunters each backed away from each other.

Now weaponless Tawaya lowered herself into a hand-to-hand brawler's position, palms open ready to receive and intercept an incoming attack.

Her opponent however staggered back while growling and clicking in a pained voice.

An invisible hand gripped the blade and drew it from his chest.

The visible blade was then dropped into the refuse on the jungle floor.

Tawaya growled lowly, posturing now against her assailant.

With a quick movement of her hands she opened her wrist computer and de cloaked. Revealing herself, the convention among Yautja of course being that her opponent was to do the same.

She waited. Growling and pacing from side to side.

Eventually, and what seemed like reluctantly, her attacker de-cloaked himself.

It was a male, he was about her height she judged, his spots and colouration was not familiar to Tawaya, she didn't know this Yautja. His dress, jewelry, and armour were all unique as well. Nothing on him was from a clan she could recognize.

Even though his mask was adorned with an intricate pattern of symbols and swirls, it's overall shape was quite plain and gave no indication of his affiliations or possible identity.

He began growling and followed suit with Tawaya, beginning to perform the non-verbal Yautja communication of growling, taunting, and posturing.

His left shoulder bore a plasma-caster, and his right gauntlet appeared to have both retractable blades as well as a firing mechanism for the projectile darts he used earlier.

On his belt he had several thrown projectiles, expanding discs, and daggers.

As he moved Tawaya could see that on the back on his waist he had a combi-stick.

'He's heavily armed, but he doesn't seem too experienced…' she thought.

She growled at him loudly and spoke in her clan's dialect, "Who are you?"

He growled loudly and shook his head while extending his arms. At the end of his display he drew his blades.

Tawaya scoffed at him and clicked, before speaking a grave Yautja insult; "I'm going to drink out of your skull… it's not good for anything else."

He could understand her; she was sure, because he roared and immediately started towards her.

As he moved she could see on the backs of both his hands large branding marks. On his left it bore the symbol for 'thief' and on his right it bore the symbol for 'Bad-blood'.

Before she could think anymore though Tawaya had to dodge his attack, and she leapt to the right.

'Inexperienced and short tempered… This will play into my favour…' changing her tactics Tawaya decided to insult and distract him, making it easier to evade.

"I see those aren't your weapons, you can steal tools but you can't steal skill."

Tawaya leapt towards a tree while behind her the bad-blood roared.

"Why? Rejected for procreation once too many times?"

He threw a dagger above Tawaya cutting her accent off; jumping down from the tree she dodged behind a felled trunk and continued with the vitriol.

"With aim that poor it's no wonder you've no mates."

He roared and threw several more daggers in her direction. One struck her thigh and from the barbs it became lodged in the muscle.

She growled and hissed in pain but kept running and avoiding his attacks.

"When they gave you those brands did they take your balls too?"

Hammering on his virility one too many times finally roused a response.

"I'm going to kill you and make a plaything out of your human!"

Tawaya's body language changed. She shrunk, 'oh no…'

He chuckled seeing her visible reaction. "Oh yes!"

He stopped pursuing her now, and began posturing instead.

Tawaya turned to watch him.

"I think he'd make a pretty toy… I'll try not to break him."

Tawaya growled at him.

"Oh all the things I could do…"

She hissed and roared "I'll rip your face off."

He shook his head and leapt onto the collapsed trunk.

"Struck nerves have I?"

His accent was familiar but it was distinct, if she wasn't so distracted Tawaya would be trying to get him to talk more so she could figure out his origins.

"Debasing your body with such scum as a human… Yet you call me the honourless one?"

Tawaya roared and jumped onto the opposite end of the trunk the bad-blood was on. She ran towards him intent on driving her fist through his swirl covered mask.

He gripped several daggers from his belt at once and threw them at her lower body.

She stopped mid-stride and attempted to dodge them, but several of the small blades embedded into her thick skin.

"Perhaps I'll take him to _my_ ship? My brothers might actually enjoy it!"

From the wounds of the small blades Tawaya rolled to the side and fell from the trunk. Though now she had weapons, three actually.

Ripping the blades from her thighs and her foot she held them and waited for him to continue boasting.

"I've never bedded a human, but perhaps you could tell me. Can they keep up?"

He peered over the edge of the trunk cockily, in response Tawaya threw each blade as fast as she could.

Two hit but the third flew off after colliding with his mask.

Groaning in pain he reeled backwards clutching his neck. The first blade struck his collar, and the second became lodged in his thick neck.

Climbing back onto the trunk Tawaya desired to engage in hand-to-hand.

The bad-blood removed the blade from his neck and roared.

The two began trading strikes. Skillfully Tawaya was able to avoid the slashes from his wrist blades but the cost was being hit by his left fist.

Clutched between his knuckles was the tip of the throwing blade. Each landed strike created small wounds in her side.

Tawaya focused on his wounded chest and attempted to hit his neck and the blade still lodged in his collar.

Growling loudly the bad-blood put everything into one heavy strike with his wrist blades.

Narrowly dodging them Tawaya succeeded in grabbing his right arm.

Now turning the blades towards him she attempted to drive them into their owner.

Lowering himself in effort to avoid being impaled his own hand he was able to bring his left arm down onto Tawaya's injured thigh, driving the throwing blade all the way to the bone. The bad-blood cut his own hand as he did so but he succeeded in escaping Tawaya's grip.

Roaring in pain Tawaya dropped to her knees and fell off the trunk, this time not landing on her feet.

The bad-blood sheathed his wrist blades and regarded his injured hand before speaking.

"I should thank you… I've learned a lot from this."

Winded from her fall Tawaya struggled to roll to her front, attempting as best as she could to help herself back up.

"Now… I shall finish this."

Dropping to the ground the bad-blood began walking slowly towards Tawaya.

"As you die, know this: Your pet? I will not be giving him same fate."

Through her pain she looked around the ground for anything that could help, for a rock, or a branch even. Then she looked at her self. Her thigh…

Getting closer to her Tawaya looked upwards at the bad-blood.

Drawing his combi-stick he extended the long weapon and raised it over her.

"He'll die screaming… though I'm disappointed you won't."

Tawaya raised her hand, "I demand a clean death…"

The bad-blood paused briefly and chuckled. "I don't think so. Now I shall drink from _your_ skull."

The brief pause and distraction was enough, roaring and rolling towards him Tawaya avoided the spear coming down at her while ripping the blade from her thigh and driving it through the bad-bloods foot.

He exhaled a gargled scream-roar and angled himself to re-aim his spear which was embedded in the leafy ground.

Kicking his spear off trajectory again Tawaya bought herself enough time to find a rock.

Bringing it as hard as she could down on his other foot she succeeded in breaking all of the bad-blood's toes.

He roared again, breaking in pitch as he gargled in pain.

With both feet injured he struggled backwards, trying to avoid Tawaya's incoming second strike while hopping on his less injured foot which the knife was still lodged through.

He was out of range of her second strike and the rock instead hit the leafy ground below them. He continued staggering backwards in horror at his wounds and in complete surprise at the pain.

He lost his footing and tripped onto a grouped pile of rocks and vines. From his semi-sitting position he screamed again and pointed at Tawaya with the spear, "I… I will kill you!"

Tawaya didn't know how injured her thigh and leg really was, but it was now or never, she had to get away from this battle before it became Pyrrhic.

With all the strength she could muster she threw herself up and tried to walk-run away.

It was almost unbearable but she was able to move well enough, behind her she heard his plasma-caster deploy and begin powering up a charge.

She slapped her injured thigh and urged her body to move faster.

Her legs complied and she began a hobbled run, past her a blue uncoordinated plasma bolt seared a tree trunk and she began dodging from side to side as she weaved through trees and foliage.

She brought up her wrist and activated her camouflage, melting from view into the dark green of the leaves and jungle in front of her.

Behind she could hear the rapid fire of the plasma-caster, each shot becoming more erratic and less accurate then the last.

For the most part, she was now out of danger… But barely


	16. Chapter 16

After the elevator bell dinged the doors shuddered mechanically as they parted open. When the way was clear the two males walked out into the hall, the older leading and the younger straggling.

Walking down the carpeted hallway the two made their way to the family's suite.

The whole while Jake's mind was wandering as he lagged behind, lazily following his father his path meandering from side to side

When they arrived at their room Jake's father searched his pockets for the electronic key-pass for the door.

Leaning against the wall opposite, Jake slowly ran his fingers through his fringe and scratched his scalp, still thinking; processing the day, the man working for his father, and also the reaction of his father earlier. It was a lot for him to go over, at least his thoughts told him so.

Down the hall, from where they had come from, one of the elevators dinged and loudly opened. As soon as the doors parted several people leapt from the small enclosure and began running down the hallway.

Both Jake and his father looked on confused as five people each began running towards their room.

One couple, a man and woman, were hyperventilating as they struggled to unlock their door.

Jake turned to his father as they regarded the commotion.

When they looked back the people had all made their way either down the other hall, or into their doors.

"What was that?" The older of the two asked rhetorically.

Wordlessly pouting his lips and shrugging Jake shook his head.

Scoffing to himself his father shook his head and pushed the door open.

As they entered the room Diana, Jake's stepmother, was sitting in the lounge chair where Jake had sat earlier before Tawaya yanked him out of the room and through the window.

Announcing their entry Jake's father spoke, "I've got him."

The electronic click sound of Diana's phone coincidentally punctuated the statement.

"Oh thank god… Walter I was so worried…"

Sitting up Diana walked past their bags to greet her husband and step-son.

She kissed Walter on the cheek and after their brief exchange he passed her to walk to their bed.

Turning her attention to Jake she looked on awkwardly as he stopped his advance into the room.

"Where were you Jake?" Sheepishly the boy grabbed his arm and seemed to shrink at the attention.

Lying onto the bed Walter let out an exacerbated sigh, "Diana…"

Before they started talking over each other Jake decided to interject "I was…"

The two adults returned their attention to the boy as he continued.

"I was with a girl, I mean, this girl I met yesterday, when I went on my walk."

Diana looked back at Walter, Jake couldn't see her expression but he could imagine it wasn't a pleasant one.

Facing Jake her brief worried expression was replaced with one of offence. The kind a person makes when they suspect someone of talking around a secret.

"You never mentioned anything at dinner yesterday?"

Jake looked towards the bathroom, he really wanted to get out of his sweat-damp clothes, wash off the salt, sweat, grime, and smells he surely thought he currently bore.

Evidentially sensing his discomfort, his father released him from the questioning of his step-mother.

"Hon, we can talk about it later, let the kid change."

Diana relented and gave Jake a nod, indicating he was free to go.

Turning to her husband she stood preparing to ask him the story.

Stopping by his bed Jake took out a fresh pair of boxers and speed-walked to the safety of the bathroom.

Through the door of the bathroom Jake's father yelled, "Just a quick one! Don't be too long!"

Turning on the water Jake responded, though he wasn't sure they heard him. While waiting for the water to warm he pulled his clothes off and emptied the contents of his pockets onto the bathroom counter which was now adorned with the family's effects, toothbrushes, toothpastes, makeup, shaving articles…

He looked at himself in the mirror and was startled to see just how badly smudged his makeup was.

The brand he used claimed to be 'waterproof' but the reflection staring back at him proved that that advertising was bullshit; he looked like he'd either been in a fight and now had two black eyes or he was trying to cosplay as a raccoon. He laughed, but then immediately became self-conscious as to how many people may have seen him like that.

As much as his parents disliked his style and aesthetic they were used to it by now and had seen him on good make-up days and on bad ones, as in really bad ones… He did occasionally still worry that he'd 'embarrassed' them but only because he was afraid of getting in shit.

Though because they were going to be dining together as a family, and in front of so many other people Jake decided to go plain faced. It saved him from wasting time re-applying and it would no doubt be an appreciated diplomatic gesture by his parents.

Running the water in the sink he poured some soap from the dispenser into his palm. Closing his eyes Jake went quickly, scrubbing and rubbing the black eyeliner, shadow, and mascara.

Squinting through his wet and soap ridden face, Jake saw he'd gotten most of it and satisfied he moved back to the shower unit. Time was of the essence and he wanted to comply with his father's request.

Surprisingly the boy did his best and hopped out of the shower almost as fast as he hopped in.

He dried himself off and pulled on his underwear, exiting the now steam filled bathroom to the cool main room of the suite.

Despite having his boxers on Jake was holding his towel around his waist, and stopped dead when he saw that the Hispanic man from earlier was in their room.

Diana was sitting back down and was clutching her mouth staring at the floor.

Walter was standing listening to the man as he spoke in Spanish to him.

Jake looked from his father and the man to Diana, expectantly waiting for someone to let him in on what was going on.

Finishing his informal report the Hispanic man briefly shot Jake a look before Walter responded in Spanish.

The man nodded and turned to leave the room.

Turning to face Jake Walter spoke, "A man on the beach has been shot. There's a bit of a panic going on, naturally, and we don't yet know why or what is going on."

Jake's eyes widened and he staggered to the side, leaning now against the door frame a thought went through his head. _Clair._

"Where's Clair!?" He immediately announced.

Diana shook her head and made a frustrated grunt.

Holding the bridge of his nose Walter announced what he really didn't want to say…

"We don't know. She left her phone, and was last on the beach, as far as we know."

Jake shook his head, "Shit…"

Outside there were a lot of audible commotion, doors opening, closing, and people running up and down the hall.

"Get your clothes on Jake, we might have to… well, just." He paused and rubbed his eyes. "Just get dressed."

Walking from the bathroom door Jake came to the end of his bed and started unzipping his luggage he pulled the first shirt and pants he grabbed.

While he put his socks on there was a knock on the door.

The three of them all snapped towards the door and stood motionless, until there was a second knock. Diana stood up, while Jake and his father both walked towards the door.

Opening the door to the suite Walter was immediately disappointed to see a member of staff and not his daughter.

Jake's mind was racing as he pulled his shirt on and then he thought, 'the room service chick!' He recognised the woman and smiled hopefully.

The woman nodded to Walter and to Jake, punctuating each action by saying 'Señor' to Walter and 'Patrón' to Jake. Furrowing his brow in confusion Walter looked to his side at his son in surprise.

"Where's my sister?" Jake eagerly and hurriedly asked.

"I came as soon as I could… She wasn't on the beach when anything happened. She and the group she was with were inside at the bar, but she left with someone."

Walter looked on quietly as the woman and Jake spoke.

"What did happen?"

She looked at Walter before continuing, "I don't really know."

Walter interjected, "What's the staff suspect?"

She took a moment and continued, "It was likely something politically or gang motivated. The Federales will be here soon though we're told…"

"Where is my sister?"

The woman hesitated but finally told the two men, "She was with a boy, a man I mean. They left the bar and, they're in one of the staff closets… As I said I came as soon as I could."

Jake looked to his dad, wordlessly they began to communicate.

The woman bowed her head and turned to leave.

"Where is this closet?"

"Just beside the bar and lounge and before the service hall…"

After that the dutiful woman left, darting down the hallway as fast as her little feet could take her.

Walter's phone began going off and he looked in at Diana.

Still holding the door open he looked at Jake before pulling out his phone.

He answered his phone and spoke in Spanish to whoever was on the other end; presumably it was the big man from earlier.

Lifting the phone from his ear he turned to Jake and spoke curtly and authoritatively;

"Get your sister and bring her back here as soon as possible. Do you hear me?"

"What about the guy she's with?"

Walter shook his head, "Get Clair, go."

Jake nodded and ran out the door and started down the hall, despite leaving his shoes in the suite, and his phone and wallet in the bathroom.

Passing the elevators each light was on, and he got to see one of the elevators open, it was filled to capacity and people poured out as soon as they had enough room to get out the doors.

'What fucking zoo!' Jake thought, 'Stairs it is then…'

Passing the elevator area of the middle of their floor Jake ran to the end of the hallway, following the fire-escape stairwell signs.

Coming to the large emergency door he pushed the bar handle and the door didn't budge.

'Are you shitting me…' frustrated and tired Jake pushed again, trying a football style tackle with his shoulder.

Still the door resisted, maybe it was locked?

"Fuck that!" he said aloud, punctuating the statement with another shoulder hit.

While light, only one hundred and eighteen pounds, Jake was able to crack the door free and it swung open into the dark unlit stairwell.

Panting he coughed a laugh in disbelief, "Seriously…"

Grabbing hold of the guiderail Jake started down the cold metal stairs and soon the concrete chamber was filled with the echo of metallic steps reverberating in the otherwise quiet dark.

At the ground floor was a dim red glow from the emergency light over the GF door but other than that the stairwell was devoid of light.

Thankfully there were not that many steps for Jake to descend and he would be able to make his way back easily, if no one closed the door to his floor that is.

Rounding the last curve of the stairs before the ground Jake slowed to try and find the handle to the GF door.

The dim red light above was barely helpful and he encountered the same problem as earlier, the door was tightly closed and must have expanded or warped from the humidity or moisture in the air.

It was lodged into the doorframe and Jake had to actually push off the wall with a foot while pulling the handle between his legs.

He was in an awkward position, and felt like an idiot, but seemingly had the right idea.

"Come on… you… bitch!"

On the fourth tug or so the door groaned and pulled backwards towards Jake.

Avoiding hitting himself with the wooden portal he moved past the door and through into a well-lit hallway.

Looking around he tried to orient himself and figure out where he'd appeared.

To his left sounded like the lobby and lots of commotion, so he moved that way.

Sure enough he'd arrived in the lobby, there were a few EMTs attending to some tourists sitting against the wall beside the check-in counter, and there were employees closely monitoring the doors. The part that struck Jake most though was the number of armed men.

There were 3 or 4 men in sunglasses, vests, and bearing pistols or what looked like compact MP5s. The vests were plain except for small patches where their names would have been, saying instead 'Seguridad del Hotel de Palma Blanca'.

They all had radios as well, and the electronic beeping and Spanish chatter could loudly be heard in addition to the yelling and overall panic going on in the other areas of the hotel.

"Holy shit… this is fucking serious…" the boy said under his breath.

Trying not to get distracted Jake reminded himself where he had to look for Clair and made his way around the edge of the lobby towards the restaurant.

The restaurant was formerly occupied, chairs had fallen to the floor and tables were left with food half eaten on plates.

To the side of the restaurant was the bar, and beside that was what Jake assumed to be the way to the service hall.

He pushed the door open and he saw two staff, a male server and a female chef staring at a small closet door.

'Jesus… that was easy…'

The two employees looked at Jake and then at each other before stepping back from the closet door.

Jake walked in front of them and took a breath.

'Time to be a badass… just like in a movie, just like a movie…'

Raising his leg to kick near the handle it was only after passing the point he could stop his kick that Jake remembered he didn't have any shoes on.

However despite being sock footed, the force behind the impact was enough and the lock broke. It helped that the door was thinner than a regular door, and that the lock was one of poor quality. If it had of been a real door Jake would have probably broken his foot. But, for now, he can have his moment of cool.

Jake's surprise at his kick's success was only matched by the searing pain now shooting up his heel and leg. And he grimaced and clutched the foot while limping into the now open fray.

As the door flung into the small closet the sight of bright flesh greeted Jake, and immediately he became greeted with the back of a man and his bare ass.

Underneath this guy was Clair, or at least he thought it was Clair, he couldn't really see.

At the sound of the door breaking the back turned and Jake became faced with what could best be described as a bearded, surfer-like, 'dude'.

"Who the fuck! Are you?!" The guy roared, but from his intonation he was obviously intoxicated.

As he turned around Jake could see his topless sister lying down on a pile of table cloths, her head lazily moved from side to side as she tried to focus with the new light coming into the dark room.

When she saw it was her brother all Clair managed to get out was; "What… fuck, Jake?"

Looking towards the guy Jake forgot about his hurting foot and pushed the guy to the side.

His swim trunks were down around his ankles and he was shitfaced, Jake's little push was enough to cause him to fall backwards and to the side of the small closet.

Despite her state of undress Jake leant forward and grabbed her wrist.

She lazily tried to bat his arm away, but she was drunk too and her blow barely even connected with Jake's forearm.

As soon as he yanked her to her feet she started to get angry, and not like when he would torment her when they shared a bathroom mad. This was on a whole new level.

"Fuck you! Y-you cunt… you-you, fucker!" Her words were slightly slurred, but for the most part she seemed on point.

In response Jake yelled to her as best he could in an authoritative voice;

"Clair! Come on!"

And he yanked her upwards to her feet and began walking back down the hall.

She tried covering her breasts with her free hand once she noticed that she was in the hallway and still was without her bikini top.

Behind them the guy struggled to pull up his shorts and was yelling slurred words down the hall, cursing at Jake for being a cock-blocker and so on.

Jake started walking with her down the hall and he had to limp in order to walk well. Clair's drunken protests and yelling wasn't helping at all either.

Turning to her he tried to explain the situation, "Clair! Clair look, look at me. There was a guy shot on the beach, okay? We're going to dad and mom okay?"

She looked at him and stopped resisting; she was lucid enough now become sobered by her brother's story.

"We've got to get out of here and back to them, dad asked me to get you. He'll know what to do…"

She nodded and looked down at her chest.

Jake looked past her and back down the hall, the two employees were looking at the drunken surfer who was trying to stand up and pull his shorts at the same time.

Making a judgment call Jake made a begrudged 'ugh' before letting go of Clair's wrist. Pulling off his shirt Jake handed it to his sister and the two continued walking.

Clair muttered a 'thanks' under her breath and pulled it on while Jake started back towards the restaurant, his pale chest now on display the boy led the way through the tables and back to the lobby.

"Sorry about your guy friend there." Jake finally awkwardly got out.

Clair shook her head and half stumbled to the side, "Whatever Jake… you being this serious is scaring the shit out of me…"

Panting Jake let out a laugh before they entered into the lobby, "Ha, you wouldn't believe the shit I've seen today. This guy getting shot is just an added-"

The doors to the lobby opened and black uniformed men poured into the grand room.

The few security guards there were immediately began frantically speaking with them and the commotion became heated.

'Who are these guys?' Jake thought, simultaneously Clair vocalised the same thing, though with her own flair.

"Who are these fuckers?"

She stopped and immediately latched onto Jake's arm and side.

"Federal police?" he paused and took a breath. "This really doesn't look good…"

Jake wasn't sure though, their uniforms were military style but they didn't have any kind of identifying markings, other than the fact they looked fucking scary as shit.

Looking to the hall that the staircase he came from was in Jake pointed and spoke quietly, for whatever reason he didn't want anyone to stop them from getting back to the room.

"That way okay? S-stay close…"

Jake became uneasy; and the black uniformed men certainly didn't help.

Something was off about these guys, and something was urging Jake to be extra cautious, for whatever reason he began to think 'Solid Snake, Solid Snake.'

He lowered himself to a crouch, and prepared to roadie-run. Clair followed suit and crouched beside him.

"Okay, One. Two. Three. Go!"

Holding his sisters hand they started running around the edge of the lobby and down the connector hallway.

Behind them they could hear the yelling of the Federales and of the security men.

Possessed by a completely new confidence Jake shook off his unease and kept running, assuring Clair, and himself, "Don't stop! Okay?"

They made it into the connector hallway and the two now rose to a proper run.

Jake looked back briefly towards the door to see two men, one a security guard and the other a Federale rushing after them.

One of the men boomed; "No vayas de esa manera! Hay una criatura suelta!"

While the other yelled; "Espere! Espere!"

Clair looked behind and asked the obvious; "What are they saying Jake?"

Jake looked at his sister with a furrowed brow, "What the fuck? I thought you took Spanish classes!"

One of the men had by now sprinted up to the siblings and was within arm's reach.

But then there was a loud 'whoosh' and a scream.

They all stopped.

Behind them the black uniformed Federale turned towards the entrance of the hall and raised his weapon.

A few steps behind the siblings the security guard raised his weapon. The two men began to talk to each other in Spanish quickly, while keeping their eyes on the door way of the hall.

The whole area seemed to become silent, like the air had been sucked out.

Then there were these huge, hulking, heavy, footsteps.

The men looked at each other wordlessly.

Jake and Clair were in through the door to the stairwell now, but you know what they say about curiosity.

Jake was just as transfixed on the door as the two gun bearing men.

But the footsteps got closer, and then there was what sounded like knives against glass.

In between the men Jake could see a shimmer in the air and he only thought one thing, _'Tawaya?'_

The men began yelling in Spanish and the black uniformed Federale shot a few rounds towards the shimmer.

The loud bangs of the shots rang in Jake's ears and Clair screamed in response.

The shimmer roared, deeply, and immediately attacked the Federale. Jake's eyes grew wide as he watched the grown man become hoisted in the air by an invisible force.

Blood splattered out the back of the Federale and he screamed as he was thrown to the side, his uniform ripped open.

Pushing Clair through the doorway to the stairwell Jake began pulling the door closed after them while yelling; "Run! Clair, run up the goddamn motherfucking stairs!"

She screamed back as she made her way up the steps in the low light, "Okay! I'm going!"

The two scrambled up the steel stairs in the dim red light and didn't stop even after they heard several shots and screaming.

They were about a flight and a half up when the screaming abruptly stopped in a horrible crescendo.

Jake felt his thin hair on his arms and legs stand up and he felt like he had to piss, and his legs were numb with fear. Clair kept running ahead of him.

But he couldn't keep pace. Instead he stood mid stride one leg two steps up as he listened to the booming of the footsteps below.

Then he heard the roar again.

It was deep and terrifying and at the end of it the door of the stairwell burst open.

The loud ringing of the door exploding open was the impetus Jake needed to start moving again.

And he scrambled up the stairs with the same amount of adrenaline as when he met Tawaya for the first time. Though unlike then he had his feet firmly planted on the ground this time, and wasn't about to fall over.

Clair had slowed to look at her brother and waved her hands for him to hurry. "Come on Jake!"

Then through the dark and through the metal stairs, Jake saw it.

The Yautja stepped into the stair well, over the broken pieces of the door and into the dark stairwell.

It clicked and cackled a low laugh as it walked towards the base of the staircase.

Mounting the stairs the Yautja easily walked up two per stride.

Jake, spurred on by terror and the desire to see his sister to safety, made his way to Clair and pushed her in the back as the two ran up the metal in the dark and towards the light of the still open door to their floor.

Then below came the scariest thing Jake had heard since the Yautja's roar, Clair's voice, but it didn't sound _right_.

"Jake!" Then it did it again, "Jake…"

This time it was more sensual and the result was unbelievably unnerving.

Then it changed and became Tawaya's voice, "Jake… Little Jake."

The siblings didn't look back, but Jake kept pushing his sister forwards, and she involuntarily shook and made sounds of distress as she made her way to the open door and the light.

She was on the verge of tears and barely taking full breaths as she ran.

Jake's face was numb and his eyes didn't blink the whole time he made it up behind his sister.

His mind was racing and he tried to think, 'What can I do? What can I do?'

Making their way through the open door, Jake made the decision. "Clair… It's after me, okay? It's after me…

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Just trust me Clair! Go to dad and mom!"

Clair looked at her brother and his expression shot through her previous intoxication and sobered her to the point that this was not something she could argue with.

For the first time in her life her brother looked at her like a serious person, not serious like when they argued over stupid shit. But serious in that she knew this was real, this was actually a life or death situation.

If she wasn't a little drunk she probably would have been so petrified by panic and anxiety she wouldn't have been able to move.

They made it through the doorway and Jake threw the door closed.

"Jake… I'm scared…"

He pushed her arm and urged her down the hall.

"Clair just run! It'll be okay!"

Her tears flowed now and she nodded reluctantly, she locked eyes with her brother and painfully parted, sprinting down the hall clutching his shirt to her mouth as she sobbed and shook.

Jake looked on the door for a means to lock it, or fasten it. He looked from side to side and his heart beat faster and faster, there wasn't any way to bar the door.

Desperately he looked to his side for something to throw in front of the door, but he stopped searching.

The loud footsteps in the stairwell had reached their floor.

'Out of time…'

Then he heard scratching on the other side of the door, and a voice.

"Little Jake?"

The voice was horribly garbled and was an unnatural combination of Jake's own voice, Tawaya's, and Clair's.

It had the desired effect and Jake shook and stumbled backwards from the door in complete and utter, mindless terror.

The door clicked open and moved as slow as possible.

This time the voice was someone he'd never heard before, it was a girl's though, but sounded synthetic.

It was a young girl's but it sounded so broken and so foreign. It hung on the two pieces of his name, splitting them up. "Ja-ke"

Jake's terror and curiosity caused him to hand a few more seconds than he should have.

Peering through the crack in the doorway the dark silver of a mask greeted Jake, and the dark visor, stared him down.

"Found you…"

The voice was Jake's own, and hearing it repeated to him made him shiver with fear as he tried to turn and run down the hall.

He didn't wait to get a better look at it, he knew it wasn't Tawaya, but he knew it was after him. So he ran, he didn't really have a plan, but he knew he wasn't about to lead the Yautja to his family.

Shirtless he ran down the hall past the elevators, and towards the other side, or wing, of this floor of the hotel but he didn't dare look behind him.

Rounding a corner Jake could see the opposite side's emergency stairs and he felt a brief spike of relief.

He sprinted towards the door and almost reached it.

Almost

Whipping behind him and down the hall was something 'whishing' through the air.

A sharp pain wrapped itself around Jake's legs and he suddenly became intimate with the floor.

His legs had been hit by bolas and the metallic string between the weights brought him down quickly.

As he fell he yelled and tried to brace his impact.

Futilely he wormed and crawled across the carpet towards the door.

"No! Goddamn it…"

Like his first encounter with a Yautja Jake was lying on his back and terrified.

"You… fucking, alien cocksucker!"

Looking backwards Jake snuck a glance at his attacker.

The Yautja was big, bigger than Tawaya, and heavily armed.

His chest was broad and while Jake thought Tawaya was muscular this male Yautja was even more muscular and his dreads were longer.

Along his belt were knives and tools, but more striking was the fact that he had jawbones, or what looked like human jawbones, looped together as part of his belt.

They were in varying states, some were ivory coloured, others reddish and stained, and some were blackened.

It walked towards Jake slowly, swaying it's hips from side to side.

In fact its whole body swayed like it was listening to music.

Then it started it's taunting again, lyrically it began sing-speaking using its perverse girl voice from earlier;

"Little, little… my little… little, little… little Jake…"

Stopping a few feet before Jake's squirming body the Yautja crouched and tilted its head.

Jake stopped moving and rolled to face down the Yautja. Wordlessly Jake controlled himself, and stared back at the Yautja, trying to stay composed and focused.

It was a struggle and he was absolutely terrified but Jake stayed still and focused on breathing.

"Found you… Chased you… Caught you…"

It sung along and when it stopped it stepped closer to Jake and let out a deep growl and a question in its sing song girl voice.

"Killed you?"

Jake's face shook with both rage and spite. He wanted to spit at the alien but at the same time he didn't want to be brutally ripped open either.

So the two sat still, quiet, and stared at each other.

Until finally the Yautja crackled and clicked, breaking their staring contest and lunged towards Jake's legs with its right hand.

The Yautja yanked him forwards, and even though his feet were bound Jake tried kicking and he lurched forwards to punch and push and hit and batter as much as he could.

* * *

End of part 16

* * *

Woo boy, quite a chapter. I'm sorry to end on a cliff hanger but that's how these episodic things roll. This is the largest chapter so far at over 5000 words, so 'bully'! I hope you guys are still enjoying it. Now the next chapter will be coming soon but I do want/would like some input from you, the readers. How dark are you guys comfortable with this getting? And! Are you looking for some levity or something less serious to help break up what's goin on?

Other than that I hope you guys enjoy(ed) this one and I'll be getting back to you soon. Take care, lots of love.


	17. Chapter 17

Jake punched as hard as he could and tried to struggle against the grip and power of the Yautja, but he did little more than annoy the creature.

"Come on you fuck!" He yelled at the alien.

It roared and growled in response but Jake kept at it, he was shaking from fear, he wanted to close his eyes and scream the monster away. But he kept at it; struggling, writhing, fighting. Jake was intent on making the experience as difficult on his attacker as possible.

Jake wasn't an idiot, he knew he wasn't much of a fighter; he knew he was small, especially when compared to the huge monster dragging him like a ragdoll. But he wasn't going to do nothing. He was going to keep going until this dreadlock-ed douchebag had let him go.

The large male was dragging Jake by his bola-tied legs and they were nearing a hallway window when the creature finally let go of Jake and turned to face him in frustration.

It was grumbling a low growl in its chest after turning, and when it came to bear on Jake the boy raised his hands to defend himself.

Mostly Jake was just covering his face, the Yautja had raised a fist but rather than hitting him in the face as he had assumed, Jake instead felt an impact on his tensed abdomen.

The Yautja hit him on the border where the chest's ribcage gives away to the soft stomach; it was the perfect place to knock the wind out of someone's lungs.

As the fist hit him it felt like it had gone up under his ribs and down into his intestine simultaneously. Immediately his diaphragm deflated and it quickly exhaled all the air that Jake had just took in when he braced in anticipation of the strike.

His hands dropped from their defensive position and he began choking and gasping at the air, his arms now curling around either side of his chest.

Satisfied that his quarry was now quiet and distracted with his pain the Yautja continued to drag the boy. But now its target was much easier to move, and the hunter began _humming_.

Jake whimpered as he tried to take in a full breath, now distracted by his current state.

It felt like asphyxiating, because, technically, it was asphyxiating. Jake's muscles around his lungs were in such shock from the hit that they were confused as to how they were supposed to function, and so he writhed around now in a quiet agony.

He was mostly quiet, but through his lack of air he managed to groan in pain.

Jake's body shuddered as he attempted to get air into his lungs and the sound he made at the peak and at the inhale of each 'breath' was a disquieting one.

Though he wasn't able to vocalise his panic Jake's mind had by now descended into momentary madness.

' _I can't breathe! I'm going… I'm going to die. I'm going to die, no air, no air!'_

The mantra continued, as if on repeat, like it was a voice not his own chanting it in the forefront of his brain.

By now, though it had only been a comparatively short amount of time, Jake's head was beginning to feel heavy and he was beginning to contort his body into a curled comfortable position to try and escape both the lack of air and the physical pain from the punch.

He was distracted by the issue of breathing so much that he wasn't able to appreciate or acknowledge the absolute pain his body was in from the 'love tap' level of a hit that the Yautja had actually given him.

But turning his eyes and thoughts upwards to his dragger, his mantra added a new line: _'you fucker… you fucker…'_

The panic and fear regarding his immediate lack of air was paralleled only by Jake's surging rage at his current inability to attack his attacker.

By now the Yautja had dragged the boy a few yards more down the hall and they were by the wall of the hallway with the window.

Dropping Jake's legs again the Yautja drew something from his belt and placed it onto the window.

Turning around from the window the Yautja leant his head forward before a high-pitched ring filled the hall.

As quickly as the ring came, it ended in a crescendo of shattering glass. The shatter punctuated the brief high pitched note and the Yautja turned back to face the now open hole of the window.

Jake's breath had slightly, slightly, returned to him but he was still incredibly light headed and stunned from both the pain and lack of oxidised blood to his brain.

The Yautja stooped to grab Jake and with ease, like the boy was a bag, threw him over his shoulder.

With his world turned upside down Jake ended up having even more trouble with trying to focus. But through his delirium and pain he knew what was going to happen next and he forced his eyes shut.

Groaning and wincing in pain the boy had become fearfully quiet as the Yautja raised his knee and planted his foot on the window sill. With one arm on Jake's ass holding his prey in place the Yautja grabbed hold of the ceiling edge of the window and prepared to begin his descent down the side of the building.

Yautja, apparently, resent human stairs and doors.

The way that his abdomen was pressing into the Yautja's shoulder allowed Jake a reprieve and his diaphragm was able to take in its first full, real, breath since he was struck.

It was like a cold splash and Jake's head started to reorient and adjust itself.

From down the hall he could hear running.

Heavy shoes on the hallway carpet sounded like they were rounding the corner.

The Yautja now had mentally calculated and aimed where and how he was going to get down and out of the hotel but before he leapt the hunter moved so he could see back down the hall over his right shoulder.

Jake moved his head upwards so he could see as well. His heart and chest was filled with hope, hope he'd be taken from this creature's arms. He wanted to yell, or scream, to fight the Yautja and let the footsteps know where Jake was.

The boy tried calling out but a hoarse and shallow cough was the best he could muster.

He tried swallowing and taking a breath quickly but his body wasn't ready yet, and he wasn't able to force it.

The Yautja growled as a man appeared around the corner. Jake tilted his head to a side so that his bang moved out of his eyes.

He struggled to keep his head up while he held his breath, as the purple and black hair parted he could see a figure round the corner. It was the man who worked for Jake's father. He had a pistol in his hand and was now wearing a ballistic vest over his dress shirt, but it was the same man.

Jake's eyes grew wide in hope and desperation.

But upon seeing the Yautja in the window frame with Jake's, mostly, limp body over its shoulder the Hispanic man stopped mid stride. He made a half sound in his throat in shock before yelling out _"Niño!"_

Jake wanted to acknowledge him, no sound came out but he gritted his teeth and nodded emphatically, stretching out a hand futilely.

After swallowing again and shifting against his captor's back he had enough air to finally make a noise.

The Yautja growled at the Hispanic man and began a leap out of the window.

While the hunter pushed off the edge of the window sill with its massive calf muscles, the Hispanic man raised his weapon and ran towards the window.

Jake's left hand tried to push off the Yautja while his right tried to grab at the man.

At first Jake thought that the noise he made was just in his head, but in reality he did manage to get it out of his mouth.

It was desperate, it was fearful, and it was a horrible sound.

He managed to scream to the man one word; ' _Help_ '.

To Jake it was like the things around him, the hallway the man, the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, were being pushed away from him.

It looked like everything else was moving, and that he and the Yautja were standing still.

Jake watched helplessly, in pain, and in horror as he fell from the building, backwards.

Though he had wanted to keep his eyes shut like his first descent out a hotel window, the sight of the man and their locking of eyes stopped him from looking away.

As they fell he felt weightless, the adrenaline in his head made his perception of the fall slow down; so the horror dragged on because Jake could do absolutely nothing about it, and the man wasn't about to save him.

The Hispanic man appeared to move at a normal speed and came to the edge of the window and peered over to watch the Yautja and Jake fall to the ground below.

The man's face was still one of disbelief.

The Yautja impacted the ground and hissed at the vibration of the landing but it was fine, to the Yautja the fall, which would have killed or seriously injured a human, was like jumping from a table to the floor for the alien.

For the boy however, the impact, though cushioned by the muscle of the Yautja's arm and shoulder still had a negative effect.

Jake's stomach collided with the Yautja's shoulder and not only was he winded again but the angle and force of the hit made him vomit immediately.

His eyes grew wide and he dug his fingers into the Yautja's fishnet and skin forcefully retching and puking Jake shook his head in pain and helplessness, he had no control over his body, and once again he couldn't breathe.

Though in consolation he made sure to aim and cover the Yautja's back in as much of his bile as he could.

The Yautja was oblivious to Jake's noises or the fact that the boy was puking his guts out over his shoulder and as soon as the hunter had recovered from his landing he started running towards the jungle.

With each heavy stride rippling up from the Yautja's feet through to his shoulder, Jake's body limply moved from side to side as much as was physically permissible in between the Yautja's head and his left forearm which were holding the boy in place.

Crossing the threshold between the hotel's grounds and the forest Jake finally stopped puking and instead revolved between gasps of desperation and dry retches of pain.

He tried looking up, but the nausea and pain was too much and now he focused on clutching to his captor.

'Just hold on… hold on tightly and maybe it'll stop, maybe the pain will stop.' He thought.

The Yautja's powerful grip on Jakes back held his middle firmly against the alien's shoulder, but it did little to stop the jostling and bumping that Jake was going through.

* * *

Back by the secluded beach Tawaya limped to her cloaked ship.

She hit her wrist computer and the landing ramp lowered while the door opened.

Her wounds were stretched and made worse by her running and escaping her fight, but she was alive; which in this situation was more important.

Her mind had calmed since her fight, the journey back to her ship was ample time to lay out her thoughts, to plan.

She had it laid out in her mind so by now she was prepared mentally; all that remained was making sure that she was prepared physically.

The wounds across her body would become debilitating if she didn't do this properly. She wasn't as well versed in medical aid as she would have liked but she knew enough to get herself back to an operational state.

She wouldn't be one hundred percent, there wasn't any hope of that, but she knew that she wasn't going to be facing a full bad-blood hunting party.

They were down a hunter, and they probably were going to be disorganised, or at least occupied if they actually intended to capture Jake.

 _Jake._

She thought about the boy and snarled. She continued into her ship and grabbed the medical items she had previously assembled for him.

Going back to her medico cabinet she pulled out a few more items and set to giving a basic stitch-job.

Before the process she grabbed a syringe of what would have been chemically similar to a steroid. Its purpose was like a steroid in that it would help with her torn flesh and muscles repair themselves at a much faster pace.

The drawback was that it was like injecting an acidic fluid into her blood stream.

She would have laughed, but she couldn't help but compare the sensation to her experience in Jake's hotel room with the cola.

Pulling the syringe out of its housing the huntress paused. Tawaya braced for the burning sensation of the injection.

Splaying out her mandibles in a hiss, she began gritting her teeth tightly. She stifled a roar, and instead punched the metal partition wall of her bathroom.

As soon as the syringe became clear she pulled it from her thick skin and dropped it to the floor, grabbing her large needle she began stitching the deeper wounds and quickly coving them with an antiseptic soaked adhesive.

While the bandages set she rushed to her weapon wall and began grabbing her tools with both hands. As her skillful hands moved independent of each other she thanked herself for her practising.

'I'm going to kill them all…' she shook her head as her side tingled, she winced in pain and looked down at the blood drying on her body, most of it hers some of it that idiot's.

'I should have finished that plasma throwing fool off when I had the chance damn it…'

Attaching her own plasma caster she took a breath. 'I will though, oh I will…'

She allowed herself to continue with her fantasy, no her picturing of the scene; 'like I said to him. I'm going to drink out of his fucking skull when I'm done with him!'

She began a low growl in her chest.

Turning from her cabin to the main room of the ship she grabbed a clean piece of medical cloth. Wiping the blood away from her body she winced again from her side.

For a moment honourless doubt encroached on her mind, 'This better not persist…'

'No… I will be fine… I am Tawaya!'

She kicked one of the metal crates in her ship over and growled loudly before speaking out loud.

"A jumped up little bad-blood thief will not fell me! Nor will his murder _'brothers'_!"

She thought about the thief's threats, and shuddered violently.

"I swear if they've hurt Jake, or even dared to try and make a catamite of him… I'll… I'll rend them! And… and choke them to death…"

Grabbing another syringe of steroid she injected it into her thigh and roared loudly.

She continued the roar into a growl-grumbling noise as she strode to the still open door of the ship.

"… _with their own cocks_!"

She yelled out to the jungle, as if they could hear her.

She clicked her tusks and cackled through the pain of the steroid coursing through her body, drawing her wrist blades she checked over the Yautja steel before finally laughing out loud at her own creativity.

Sheathing the blades she wordlessly focused herself and began down the ramp of her ship.

"I'm going to kill these bad-bloods…"

Resolved, and barely stitched up, Tawaya set out to kill her attacker, his two companions, if there even were others, and see her Jake safely with his family.

' _Again…'_ she laughed.

* * *

End of part 17


	18. Chapter 18

Jake had long since lost the strength in his arms to hold on to his captor, so the limbs limply rocked from side to side against the back of the Yautja.

Swaying with each stride the male took, Jake's legs rolled and moved from side to side as much as the bolas still wrapped around his ankles would let him.

"I don't feel good…" he would say occasionally.

Usually when the Yautja had slowed down to navigate a more uneven or difficult part of the path Jake took the opportunity to squeak out a complaint or pained groan.

Jake's newfound confidence and strength that he had earlier in the day had, by now, become exhausted.

He was scared, and tired.

Helpless and physically worn out the boy's mind was done functioning. He didn't want to think anymore, he didn't want to be moving anymore, he didn't feel like giving a shit about anything anymore either.

His tongue still burned from his vomit, and his nose stung from the smell.

But he couldn't do anything about it.

He'd cry if he didn't feel so emotionally drained already, but as his thoughts turned to the prospect of 'letting go' emotionally speaking he involuntarily whimpered.

And that's when things got weird.

Before now his captor had silently went about his running, he held Jake and occasionally adjusted how he was holding the boy's body, but other than that he oddly acted and made out like Jake wasn't even there.

Even when Jake vomited on the Yautja there was no reaction, or at least not one that Jake had noticed.

While he was puking Jake had hoped that he'd be able to have spited the alien by getting as much on him as possible, but the Yautja's indifference seemed worse than an actual reaction.

After Jakes whimper though the Yautja seemed to finally notice that his charge was alive.

It purred and raised his right hand to stroke the boy.

The large strong hand patted and began petting the back of Jake's leg, then his thigh, and finally up towards his ass.

Jake's eyes grew wide and he gained a burst of energy, fighting against the Yautja's grip and the sickening touch.

He raised his legs slightly and though they were still tied together he tried to kick outwards to gain momentum. When that didn't do anything to really help, Jake began bringing his knees downwards, trying to get the Yautja in the chest or his pec… Anything to loosen his gip, or something…

With his arms free though, he was able to hit his fists against the Yautja's back and against the creature's shoulder. He tried hitting where it would best hurt, or best get the muscles, but instead the Yautja cackled and rumbled with a gruff laughter.

Finding his voice Jake began to berate the creature, "Get the fuck off me… I swear… get… get your hand… F-fuck you…"

The low laughter continued.

It took a lot of effort to keep his head up, but the derisive laughter was somehow helping Jake.

It was agitating him, and while he still felt helpless currently, he was getting a greater desire in the back of his mind.

His hitting and struggling right now was futile, he knew that, 'but…'

And this was important Jake began thinking: 'but… when I can, I'm going to get this fucking alien prick back…'

He felt, not hope, but something encouraging in his chest, though this feeling was quickly drowned out by the terror of the insinuation that the Yautja's forceful touching made.

Jake had been to some doggy places before; underground concerts, clubs, and the like. So he was self-aware that being a weak armed rich kid brought with it some, risks…

He was a lighter weight, and he wasn't a good fighter… but he was quick and knew many things that he could do to get out of a bind…

Now since he was a rich kid, these usually revolved around placating a potential aggressor with money, or with getting people to protect him for the promise of cash.

Both of these things he'd actually had done before.

However, it wasn't as if the Yautja would be willing to cash an 'I owe you' from Jake.

Jake began to realise, with sobering clarity, just what could happen right now if that alien holding him wanted it.

The creepy touching was enough to prove that.

'Oh… fuck…' the boy thought.

His hitting of the Yautja quickly stopped; instead he pushed his hands in such a way to help give his head a better view around them.

What could he do? What could he grab? If anything was there _to_ grab.

' _Too late…'_

The Yautja flexed his shoulder and left arm, re-adjusting how Jake's weight was distributed.

Doing so Jake's hands lost their position and his sight was blurred by a sudden unexpected flurry of motion and his own bangs.

'I'm being thrown down! Oh fucking HELL no!'

As he slipped down the front of the Yautja towards the ground Jake made sure to grab two full hands of the Yautja's dreads.

The Yautja made a surprised growl and scream of pain.

The awkward throw that the Yautja had made was now stopped in mid-air. With his left arm he tried holding Jake so that he wasn't pulling as hard on his 'hair' and with his right he reached towards Jake's throat.

While Jake was light, one hundred and twenty or so pounds hanging off the Yautja's hair was still a lot of weight.

Groaning and growling the Yautja's vision was turned to the side Jake wasn't on. From where the boy had grabbed the dreadlocks it forced the Yautja's head to turn the opposite way. Jake was slightly thankful that the creature wasn't staring him down again, but this brief feeling of gratitude quickly disappeared.

The Yautja's right hand grabbed at Jake's throat and quickly wrapped its large, powerful, grip around his thin neck.

It immediately began squeezing and the haunting, sick, imitation voice of the Yautja crackled out of the mask.

It was the little girl voice which it had used earlier to scare the shit out of Jake and it spoke with both surprise and revulsion; "Let _GO_."

The command was terrifying yet Jake wanted to push it, a subconscious, near-suicidal, drive was making him want to spite the creature and fight it at every opportunity.

So he refused to comply and instead spoke in defiance, finally also getting the courage to spit at the Yautja like Jake had wanted to do when it first confronted him.

"Fuck you, you ugly alien cunt!" Punctuating the statement with the spitting, Jake felt like it was a moment just like in a movie.

But the Yautja was less than impressed.

Tightening its grip around the boy's thin throat the Yautja started moving his arm, and Jake, upwards.

The motion was quickly releasing the draw of the weight on the dreads and eventually Jake's weight was held up, easily, by the Yautja's thick right arm.

Jake struggled to breathe, but now that he was higher than the hair he was pulling the alien started extending his arm forcing Jake outwards further from the Yautja's chest.

Eventually Jake's grip on the thick tendrils was weak enough that the Yautja gave a growl and threw the boy forward.

Easily Jake's grip gave away and he was sent backward from his captor.

The trip was short and Jake landed on his ass. Hitting through some foliage and low bushes, he coughed and brought both hands up to his throat.

The strength of the Yautja's grip scared him; if the creature wanted he could have easily crushed his windpipe, in fact Jake was surprised that the creature didn't.

'What the fuck does it want with me?' He thought in panic.

Shaking its shoulders and flicking his dreadlocks backwards the Yautja unclipped something from his belt and began towards Jake.

With his legs still bound Jake couldn't easily get to his feet, nor did he have any time to.

Reaching out his hands towards Jake it became apparent that the Yautja had drawn another bola, and it was more than likely he was going to tie Jake's hands together.

Jake dug his barefoot heels into the dirt and ground, pushing himself backwards, trying to get away from the Yautja.

But a booming noise drew both their attention to something close by.

The distraction was brief and quickly the Yautja returned his attention to the human and lunged at Jake.

Jake began yelling and he tried kneeing upwards, he was also punching with his hands, though he made an effort to keep his arms away from each other so he wouldn't get them pinned together and then tied.

But the Yautja's patience was approaching his limits and his agitation was becoming clearer by the abruptness of his movements, the force with which he acted, and the gruff noises that he made.

Jake's arms were easily subdued and caught by the Yautja, ending his already futile resistance, and with a practised movement the hunter quickly tied the boy's wrists together.

Spewing fear driven profanity Jake lost control of his body and his tongue, and helplessly began writhing still fighting, but now with an increased level of screaming and swearing.

The booming noise in the distance repeated, and was quickly followed by smaller uniform noises.

The Yautja looked up and in the direction of the noise, but this time with a greater degree of concern. As he scanned the distance quickly he began a low rumble in his chest.

Looking upwards at his captor Jake prepared another shot of spit when he saw something shimmer and materialise.

From the Yautja's left side, swinging noiselessly towards him from a perch Jake saw a familiar figure melt out of the shadow.

 _Tawaya!_

Overhead Tawaya was swinging from the tree top using some kind of rope; something obviously strong enough to handle a fully grown Yautja.

Jake's face of surprise and hope betrayed her sneak attack, but she had to let him know she was there, and she could help herself but de-cloak at that moment.

The male Yautja looked back from the distracting noise and down at Jake in time to see his expression and where he was looking.

Turning rapidly he was able to see Tawaya before she struck him but other than that he was unable to properly react and brace himself.

Colliding full force with both of her feet into his helmeted head Tawaya swung like a deadweight battering ram.

It knocked him off of Jake and sideways several feet from the boy, the strike was so severe and sudden that it forced the Yautja onto his back, dazed.

After the follow through of her strike Tawaya let go of the cable and landed with a deep loud 'crunch' breaking through tree branches, foliage, and underbrush.

After landing she broke through the greenery and rushed towards her target.

Making it to his feet the male Yautja staggered around in a semi-circle as he tried to keep his balance, before he was steady though Tawaya roared and ran full speed at him.

Hitting his chest in a rugby style tackle she was able to trip and force him back to the ground again.

The Yautja was still unable to steady or collect himself enough to see straight; his punches and retaliatory strikes missed their target and he was so stunned his noises were barely words.

From his helmet his emulated human voice crackled and snapped with electronic interference and sounded like a weak radio signal. Tawaya's initial strike must have damaged his internal hardware.

Continuing her assault Tawaya struck and battered his head again and again, roaring, hissing, grumbling and breathing so fast she appeared to be hyperventilating.

She only stopped when the male's arms dropped motionless by either side and he lay back in pain.

Quickly leaving his battered body Tawaya rose and ran towards Jake.

Now able to get a view of her front Jake noticed she was covered in wounds and that a bright green liquid was oozing out of sutures and the few impromptu bandages she was wearing.

She was injured, and not in small superficial ways.

But despite the wounds her body rippled and flexed as she breathed, quickly calming itself from its rapid pace.

She nodded and let out what seemed like a sigh of relief when they locked gazes.

Her body language immediately changed and she stooped to a knee and leaned to embrace Jake forcefully.

She clicked and let out a low rumbling purr.

"Little Jake, I found you…"

Jake nodded, his face couldn't really decide on an expression to settle on and he went from joy, to relief, to furrowing his eyebrows tightly.

Before he could say anything she broke the tight embrace off and grabbed his bound wrists.

Clenching her right fist, two long blades shot out of the thick gauntlet.

Jake's eyes shot open wide and he began cringing while involuntarily sputtering in apprehension and surprise at the size and lethality of the blades just a few inches from his face.

But before he could articulate his noises of protest into actual words she quickly cut the cord of the bolas and the blades sheathed.

"Can you stand Little Jake?"

Pulling his wrists apart and throwing the cord away Jake nodded.

"I think so."

Tawaya made a gruff affirmation and stood.

Leaning forwards Jake pulled at and untangled the bolas around his legs and threw them to his side, roughly in the direction of the motionless body of the male Yautja.

"What happened to you Tawaya?" Jake asked, motioning towards her body. His voice quivered in concern.

He was really approaching the limit of what he could handle in a day and it was showing.

Tawaya was covered in a layer of grime, spots of dirt, the occasional leaf, and sweat. Jake didn't know that she, Yautja, did sweat, but it certainly looked like she was covered in it.

She looked down at herself and smacked her chest with a closed fist. The force of her hit made her thick alien skin jiggle and the tight webbing dug into her taut flesh and accentuated the appeal of her wet skin.

In addition to the dirt, the grime, the refuse, and the sweat, her blood and wounds made her look even more… Jake stopped himself, 'What? _More attractive?'_ he stared at her as she moved.

She was strong, unbelievably so… and it looked to Jake that even though she was injured, it was nothing she was like a tank!

She cut his bonds, and on top of it all she had just saved his life. _Again, But who's counting?_

Jake looked up at her and began picturing her nude, but before his thoughts ran any further he shook himself back to reality and berated himself;

'Jesus! _What the fuck!_ This is too fucked up to think about right now…'

Walking away from Jake Tawaya began bearing down on the male Yautja again, he wasn't yet dealt with.

She clenched her fist again and the wrist blades reappeared.

But underneath her the male stirred and he laughed and clicked. Tawaya stopped moving towards him and instead the two then began speaking in their language.

Jake stood up and steadied himself against the trunk of a tree as he watched on, catching his breath and thankful he was going to be okay. Or at least it looked like he was going to be in the immediate

Tawaya roared and it scared Jake enough to make him freeze and hold his breath mid action.

He must have blinked and missed what had happened but the male underneath Tawaya had done something, he attacked, or struck, or something…

But Tawaya staggered backwards clutching her side; the bright green Yautja blood flowing from under her hand and grip.

The male tried to get to his feet and rose into a kneeling position, Tawaya lunged at him and the two locked arms as they began to trade blows.

The audible unsheathing of the male's wrist blades made Tawaya break their grip and step backwards to avoid being slashed.

The male Yautja had recovered enough that he jumped to his feet and started towards Tawaya.

Jake watched on in horror, flattening himself up against the tree, digging his hands into the bark and holding his breath meekly.

He sat watching helplessly, hoping Tawaya would beat the Yautja, hoping that she'd get Jake out of here.

Then it started to get loud, both the male and Tawaya punctuated impacts and strikes with roaring and hissing and clicking.

To Jake it was like watching two tigers eviscerate each other and he couldn't move.

People often say 'fight or flight', but the truth is that there's a third reaction; fight, flight, or freeze.

And he was frozen, in terror, in helplessness, in shock.

Jake hadn't noticed it before but the reality was that Tawaya was hurting badly; she'd already held her own against a Yautja earlier and suffered greatly for it.

While Jake had no way to know that specifically it quickly became apparent to him that Tawaya was not at her A-game right now.

Watching the two Yautja in front of him, Jake was immediately reminded of boxing. It felt like and looked like a heavyweight match, and he was getting a first row seat. The only difference, other than the fact they were huge when compared to human boxers, was that he knew this was a real _death match_.

Jake had watched many fights at school; he'd also watched tons of boxing, UFC, and the like with his father. Now while he didn't have a keen eye or interest for fighting he did pick up a variety of tells, and signals from commentary and second hand observations.

All that is to say that a horrible thought began creeping to the forefront of his mind, and eventually it became obvious enough that he couldn't ignore it anymore; Tawaya's body language was quickly beginning to show that _she was losing_ …

Her strikes were beginning to look slow, and less powerful; less coordinated. Her injuries had caught up to her now, and her adrenaline was wearing out.

The foot work of the two Yautja was also beginning to disclose the respective statuses of the two fighters.

They were matched pound for pound, roughly; even their respective experience levels seemed the same, but despite this evenness of the two Tawaya began the fight with an upper hand: she was ready.

By now as the two hulking walls of alien muscle exchanged strikes and danced around with each other in a grotesque competition, Tawaya's earlier advantages were clearly superfluous now. It scared Jake, he was even more afraid of what was to happen, what he would so clearly witness in front of him.

But something in Jake began to overtake his fear.

He watched as her body moved into different poses; the two Yautja's motions rippled in the ambient light filtering through the canopy above.

It was like watching two Greek statues brought to life, the whole moment was surreal, and it played out slower and slower.

Each motion moved at quarter speed.

The blades and fists were slashing, grazing, glancing, and impacting all as if on slow-play.

The feeling that rose in Jake surpassed his fear and he felt like his consciousness took a back seat as someone else took over.

He felt his throat move and contort, his tongue kicked up and he yelled.

As he did so he moved off the tree trunk, his hands rose to cup around his mouth and amplified the voice.

" _Kick his ass Tawaya!"_

When his voice came out it snapped him out of his slow motion daze, and he came to. And his thoughts started again.

'I've got to do something! I've got to help her for fucks sake!'

'Come on Jake think man think!'

He yelled again, "Keep going Tawaya! Fucking _kill him!_ "

His eyes darted around, a rock, a stick, anything… Then he saw the bolas… and got an idea.

Tawaya did actually get a boost from Jake's voice, she dogged a strike that would have gutted her and she caught the male's right wrist with her left hand.

Quickly she brought down her right fist and blades towards the male's shoulder. He caught her hand and once again they were locked in this grapple.

Out of the male Yautja's view Tawaya could see that Jake had moved away from the tree, he was doing something but she couldn't tell what.

Quickly a thought ran through her mind before she turned back to the struggle she was in.

' _He's conquered his fear?'_

The male tried moving her hands to the side and he brought up his knee to hit her injured thigh.

They were both still making a chorus of inarticulate sounds and grunts and rumbles as they struggled against each other's strength.

Tawaya held the Yautja at bay, knowing that somehow Jake was going to do something drastic.

Behind the two fighting aliens Jake steeled himself and got closer, stooping down he grabbed the Yautja's bolas that previously held his legs bound and quickly the boy wrapped both ends around his right and left hands.

Then he pulled the cord so that it was taut and straight in between his two fists. 'Just like in movie or something…' he thought.

' _A garrote…'_ he remembered, 'how the fuck do I even know that?'

Tawaya saw him and she knew she had to hold on just a little longer.

' _That human boy has finally done it…'_ she watched his hands steady out, preparing the makeshift weapon.

Her arms started shaking under the strain but she used the pain in her arms and legs to hold it just a little longer.

Roaring loudly Tawaya pushed harder against the male Yautja and he was forced to move his abdomen awkwardly.

Jake stood up and mentally rehearsed how to do it, he'd seen it in movies, in games, but here he was: actually having to do something _real_ for once to save Tawaya, and himself.

' _This is crazy this is crazy…'_ he began chanting in his head, but it didn't stop his movement.

With the bolas wrapped around his hands he took a running jump and threw himself at the male Yautja's back.

As he did he brought the cord in front of the Yautja and his arms around his shoulders.

Simultaneously Tawaya stepped backwards while letting go of the male's hand.

Jake's inertia and surprise hit coupled with the Yautja's own momentum being released by Tawaya made the male stagger forward.

Jake started yelling loudly as he tried pulling backwards as hard as he could.

Tawaya side stepped again and instead kicked the male's left leg behind the knee.

With Jake doing what he was doing Tawaya began hitting the male in his sides along his rib cage; she avoided his reach and stayed far enough away nimbly jumping back to avoid his strikes of desperation.

Even though the male was battered and now outnumbered, even though he was in an awkward and compromised position, the Yautja deflected and did his best in countering a few of Tawaya's attacks.

But Jake knew he couldn't let go. The boy kept pulling; to better aid the process he brought his right leg off the ground and forced the knee into the Yautja's back. The extra leverage helped to dig the cord deeper into the alien's throat.

Tawaya stepped out of the male's range and watched, catching her breath.

Jake's mind had now gone blank, he was at the moment, utterly absorbed in the act now.

His hands were bleeding and the cord was digging into his skin enough to break it and cut it. While underneath the male Yautja was throwing his arms out and slashing at the air, trying to hit Jake behind him as he bucked and shook and moved violently.

Jake held on though. He kept pulling, and he kept pushing with his knee.

He yelled and was even roaring with a primal drive.

He clenched his teeth so hard he thought they were going to shatter.

The Yautja fell onto both knees now and his arms clutched at the cord cutting his throat.

Jake pushed off the ground with his left foot while keeping his right knee in the middle of the Yautja's back.

The grunting and the noises got louder as Jake forced the male forwards.

He didn't realise it but he had been saying words the whole time, he was thinking out loud.

"Get on the ground you fuck! You fuck you fuck!"

His thoughts and his profanity flowed out in unison between sharp breaths.

The male kept thrashing from side to side and tried bucking Jake off.

In response Jake moved his knee off and kicked the Yautja in the side before pushing his body as hard as he could into the Yautja's back.

"Why don't you lie the _fuck_ down?"

The top heavy bulky Yautja was felled and collapsed forwards onto his front clutching its throat; gurgling and choking out disgusting sounds the whole while.

With the male on the ground Jake straddled either side of the male's back and pushed off the forest floor with his bare feet.

As he pulled backwards and pushed with every muscle in his body he screamed: "Why won't you _die!"_

The Yautja's arms flew outwards a few more times while his body kicked and moved from side to side.

Then he stopped moving.

Underneath the male's body thick green blood began oozing out and flowing in short slowing spurts.

Jake however kept pulling, and was readjusting his bloody and slick grip when Tawaya touched his shoulder.

"Little Jake…"

He couldn't hear her.

She shook his arm and touched his face with a hand, "Little Jake!"

He stopped yelling and straining and looked at her.

Then he looked down.

The male had stopped moving and his left arm was twisted clutching at his throat while his right had dug its nails into the dirt.

Jake's hands started to hurt.

Looking away from the dead Yautja he finally saw and it registered that his hands were dripping with his own blood.

Jake screamed and let go of the cord. It slipped from his hands but was still relatively tight against his skin.

Smacking at the cord and shaking both his hands he dropped and shook the bola away.

As he stepped away from the dead Yautja he couldn't help but lose it at the combination of what he did and the blood flowing from his hands.

The proximity of the blood in his hands to his scarred forearm was too much and he began quickly breathing and sharply climbing into hysterics.

He staggered back from Tawaya's touch and the dead Yautja and fell backwards, he couldn't catch his breath and the blood on his hands wouldn't go away. No matter how much he shook his hands, or wiped them on his pants or his shirt.

Tawaya lunged forward and clutched him closely.

Jake began crying and shaking as he held his hands up and away from his body.

Tawaya winced but spoke as best she could, "Little Jake, you're okay now. I have you."

He shook and sobbed.

"Get to your feet Little Jake."

She moved back from his chest and looked at his face.

He looked up at her with his light blue eyes, his brow was furrowed and his face looked a mess. But she nodded at him.

"It's okay Little Jake."

He looked to her with a strange expression; he was confused, overwhelmed, revolted, pained, vulnerable, and still frightened.

"Get up Little Jake."

She backed away from Jake and the toll of everything decided to lie onto her at once.

Hissing in pain she clutched herself and looked down at her bleeding wounds.

Jake spat to his side and used the back of his hand to wipe his eyes, he was shaking but he nodded to himself as he echoed Tawaya; 'get up, get up, just get up…'

He rose to his feet and stifled a sob as his mantra changed; 'man up! Man up! You're alive!'

The mantra continued, and then changed, when it did Jake sobered, there would be time later to deal with the emotional bullshit… But not right now.

'You're alive, you're alive… _I'm alive…_ '

Shaking his shoulders Jake straightened his back and took a breath, 'okay… okay, don't think, and just move on…'

Dispelling any more thoughts from his mind he spoke up and moved towards his alien.

"Are you okay Tawaya?"

She peeled back her bandage to reveal that several of the stiches in her side suture had split.

To him it looked like she was bleeding a lot.

Initially upon seeing her blood, and seeing how visceral it was he wanted to step back, he wanted to scream.

But he couldn't, she needed him.

Unfreezing his apprehensive leg muscles he goaded himself on; 'She needs you Jake, _help her_.'

He stepped forwards and threw aside his earlier state of weakness, of helplessness. They were replaced by mandatory resolve.

His voice changed slightly, it was still his high pitched voice, but it sounded serious and competent.

"What can I do?"

The words poured involuntarily out of his mouth but it was what he had to say.

She looked at him and though she was wearing her mask Jake felt her expression through the blank metal visage.

"I need to treat myself," she clicked.

Pointing downwards to her belt she indicated a small package like object attached to her.

"I can stitch this, but I don't know about moving."

Jake's voice cracked with insistence as he repeated himself, "What can I do?"

She grabbed the small medical pack and moved towards a fallen log.

"Tell me what to do Tawaya!"

She nodded and began to respond, "Okay Little Jake…"


	19. Chapter 19

Tawaya shifted her weight from side to side where she sat, reeling from the pain, but temporarily numbed by the success of the kill… but also, and more so, with the knowledge that her Little Jake was in her sights.

He was safe, he was… unblemished.

Bad Bloods were scum, they were always a pleasure to kill, and Tawaya had been told so from the age she could walk till her first hunt.

Any Bad Blood was an honourless exile; they lived outside the natural order. There was a great amount of reverence due to anyone who'd brought a Bad Blood to justice.

Anyone who'd set right a wrong of that caliber was sure of honour and distinction from not just their own clan, but others too, and especially from those whom the Yautja in question may have wronged to earn themselves 'bad blood' status.

Her pride was hurt that the kill wasn't hers alone, but she was consoled with the fact that it was Jake's intervention that actually finished it.

Tawaya was surprised, and she was amused at Jake's performance, but more than that she was elated.

She would have grabbed him and thrown him into the air in celebration, if he hadn't been so overwhelmed.

Involuntarily she shook her head; the pain reminded her that Jake's emotions were not the only reason she wasn't celebrating. She was hurting, badly, and the fight could have very easily ended in her decapitation, disgrace, and Jake's…

Tawaya shuddered and winced, punching the rotten wood of a leaning log beside her.

'That's enough thought spent of the subject.' She mentally declared.

She waved her hand and indicated to her human that he was to get closer; turning from him back beside her she had laid on the log her small medical pack.

"Open it… Little Jake."

Clutching her side with one hand she pointed with the other.

Wiping his bloody hands on his legs Jake eagerly knelt beside her and clicked open the small pack.

She could do this on her own.

She had done this on her own before.

But this time was different, it was oddly intimate.

She didn't mind the help. At least she didn't mind Jake's help. But it was different; he wasn't another Yautja helping her unnecessarily, he was hers.

Her human, and she didn't mind her human doing things for her.

She pointed her long and sharp alien nail towards a small Yautja syrette.

"Little Jake, take this."

He nodded and delicately handled the small instrument, "Okay."

Tawaya indicated where she wanted him to inject it.

Punctuating the order she gruffly managed out "…here."

His face was pale, and he shook slightly. But his eyes were focused; he was attentive and listened like he was an apprentice.

"Will it hurt?"

She clicked her tusks, even now his concern was endearing.

"No." Placing her free hand on the area of her thigh she'd indicated she spread her fingers out and helped keep her skin taut and still for Jake.

He took a breath and pushed the metal tip through her thick skin.

Throwing her head back she roared at the burning sensation which immediately followed the insertion.

Jake shut his eyes and recoiled in surprise, "I thought you said it wouldn't hurt?"

His voice was irritated but it was entirely out of concern.

Tawaya clicked her tusks and began feeling slight relief flood her body.

"If I had you wouldn't have done it Little Jake."

He shook his head, "Okay, okay, what now? You're still bleeding and I'm not a doctor but… you've lost a lot of blood!"

She nodded, "It is okay Little Jake, grab this..."

Pointing back into the small pack at another instrument Jake begrudgingly returned to his previous position.

The tool Tawaya was indicating looked like a small glue gun but it had a phial of liquid in its chamber and a metal plunger on the back.

After Jake picked up the implement Tawaya moved her hand and made a finger-gun, then pointed at her bright green oozing wounds, pulling her finger back pantomiming firing.

Jake didn't need any more direction than that.

Dutifully and with a clinical attitude Jake squirted the clear liquid into the major wounds first. Without being told Jake was aware of triage and made sure that the large wounds in her side, her thighs, and so on were treated first.

While he had no idea what it was, and Tawaya wouldn't have known how to say it from Yautja to English, the dispenser was a coagulant.

Like the other pieces of a Yautja's first aid kit it was a very powerful one, and Jake could see within seconds the blood flow slow to the pace of molasses.

After the last 'real' cut was addressed Jake moved his head back from Tawaya's skin to look over her chest and the front of her legs.

He looked up at her, ready for his next direction and she gave him a nod of approval, clicking her tusks under the helmet as she did.

Punctuating her approval she used a playful tone of voice, "You're not entirely useless."

Despite the circumstance she wanted to make an effort to help Jake's psyche.

He furrowed his brow, "Not exactly the time to joke around Tawaya…"

She clicked her mandibles, chuckling mid-breath at his expression.

After placing the gun back into the medical kit Jake looked up again, "Okay, what's next?"

"Stitching" she responded plainly.

Jake stopped and took a breath, nervously swallowing. Clearing his mouth and loosening his tongue he prepared to speak.

But before he voiced anything Tawaya interjected, this time she used her intimate voice, despite her gruff natural tones she spoke softly.

"Little Jake… You've done enough. I do this."

The boy nodded thankfully. Leaning forwards slightly the female Yautja touched the back of her hand on Jake's shoulder; it was assuring and at the same time acknowledged that she understood his limits.

At least she was coming to appreciate his limits, she didn't understand, not yet. But as she thought about it she looked forward to understanding more of her Little Jake.

Grabbing the thick and sharp looking curved needle from the pack and its thick threading Tawaya wasted no time in busily going to work.

At first Jake tried to watch, but the visual of Tawaya easily pulling the needle through her own skin as well as the wet noises… It was too much.

Before he threw, again, up the boy looked away and tried to think of something else but, like a wave, the torrent of different emotions within him was roaring, and ready to flood over.

Jake dug his nails into the palms of his hands, a habit he used to ground himself, but was surprised that it hurt.

The sharp pain was a shock and he brought both palms upward, he hadn't yet taken any time to look at his own wounds; the bola cord had dug into and cut his skin in several places, leaving dark red lines in the soft flesh.

While the cuts had stopped bleeding and he'd wiped the blood as best he could when it was fresh, both his hands were still covered in deep, carmine coloured, splotches of dry blood.

Scanning his eyes up from his palms to his fingers the earlier stress on his joints began to catch up to him.

Each of the knuckles on both hands was severely strained and now pulsed with pain; the skin around the fingers had slightly swelled from the pulling action combined with the cutting off of circulation due to the tightness of the cord.

Even his thumbs were swollen and along the inside of the digits and the outer side of his knuckles through the rusted colour of the blood, under his pale skin, the blue and yellow of bruising was starting to form.

The amount of effort Jake had exerted while pulling the cord was far more than his lazy and weak body should have been able to do; the strain had caused him to bruise, cut, and actually tear his muscles.

Coming down from the chemical and emotional 'high' of their fight, Jake's pain in his hands began to radiate up and into his forearms.

His elbows hurt, even his wrists hurt; it was a worse radiating pain than any time he had binge-played video games.

Though more than his hands and forearms the place that hurt worse had to be his shoulders.

They _really_ hurt, and more than just hurt they felt warm; it felt like a hot, sticky, liquid was coming out of his shoulder which was more than just sweat.

He raised a hand and tentatively pulled at his shirt sleeve, as he moved his arm it flared with a pain at the changing of position, and once he lightly gripped the shirt even the action of moving the material off his skin hurt to do.

But as he pulled the sleeve up and away from his frame, he was startled to see small red lines, several of them coming up through his skin.

Upon seeing them he made a sharp noise of surprise and immediately looked to his other side, verifying that the pain in both shoulders would have the same physical, strange, red lines.

He made a few more noises of pain and apprehension before Tawaya looked up.

"Torn muscle" she announced.

Obviously she'd seen it before, and while it looks different creature to creature the same physical manifestations occur in almost all living things trauma to trauma.

"Are you sure?" Jake looked towards her expectantly, an earnest and inexperienced expression across his face.

She nodded as she continued her sewing.

Looking away from her Jake shuddered as he tried to clear the sight of her needlework from his eyes.

Without looking up she spoke again, "You'll be okay Little Jake."

He smirked between breaths, "If you say so…"

Looking away from Tawaya his eyes traced the ground, from her feet across the dirt and leaves and roots towards his.

After avoiding it for what he seemed was enough time Jake forced his eyes away from his feet and towards the dead Yautja.

He was big.

No, he was huge, a huge, hulking, evil, alien, psycho…

'How the fuck did I do it?' He thought.

Holding his hands close to his chest, Jake tried to find a position where the strain on his shoulders, his forearms, and his wrists, would be lighter.

Then, driven by a morbid curiosity, he began walking towards the body.

Tawaya looked up and eyed her human with concern, but she didn't say anything, nor did she make a noise to indicate that she had noticed his movement.

The safety of the knowledge that it was dead and that Jake was in Tawaya's sight gave him that confidence to edge closer to the corpse.

It was quiet but there was still the sound and ambience of the hot jungle around them.

Bugs hissed and in the distance birds were calling, but in the presence of the dead Yautja it seemed muted, quieter than usual or than it should have been.

Avoiding rocks with his bare feet Jake circled around towards the head of the creature.

He knelt slowly and at a fair enough distance away that the boy was comfortable with, and he stared, silently, wordlessly.

"I've never, killed… anything like" he paused and tried to collect himself.

"I've never done anything like this… I don't know…"

He paused, frustrated, and shook his head.

Tawaya looked and understood what he was trying to say.

Standing back up Jake moved to the Yautja's side and got closer, at first he was tentative and moved timidly.

But then he remembered a feeling, the feeling of fear and dread and terror that he had in the stairwell when he was keeping himself between this creature and his sister.

'What would he have done to Clair?'

His mind raced, 'what would have he done to me, really?'

These thoughts provided the impetus he needed for confidence and he stepped closer to the body and lowered himself.

Gripping the Yautja's side with both hands he pulled and pushed, groaning and wincing from the pain.

After a loud yell of exertion Jake rolled the dead Yautja onto its back.

The sound was punctuated by the clicking and jingling of the Yautja's various charms, trophies, weapons, and pieces of armour.

Huffing and breathing heavily Jake stepped back up to look over the front of the terror that had previously threatened and had held his life entirely in its hand.

"You cocksucker…" he grunted under his breath.

He spat on the dead creature and stared into the blank expression of its mask.

Consciously he avoided looking at the wound he had inflicted on the Yautja's neck; the fatal slice that Jake himself had created.

He was locked in a staring contest with the masked creature again.

The rage welled in his chest at the same time as the anxiety.

He felt his breathing again begin to climb out of control.

Under his breath he began repeating the same profanities over and over, until finally it over flowed and he began kicking the creature.

He brought his heel down onto the creatures' abdomen and then when his right foot hurt too much he used his left a few times, then he descended to his knees and began punching his fists into the tough, almost iron, muscled chest of the Yautja.

Tawaya grumbled and clicked loudly.

"Little Jake, stop!" She looked over with concern, and then repeated herself.

The boy however couldn't hear her.

He was getting louder and more distraught, and then he looked around for something.

Tawaya pulled the needle through her flesh to finish off the suture and she forced herself to stand.

Jake had found a rock and held it above his head, he'd reopened the cuts in his hands and bright red blood began running down his pale arms.

Before he could bring the rock down to the Yautja's mask Tawaya grabbed hold of his hand with one arm and wrapped her other around his chest, pulling him backwards and up, away from the body.

This time Jake lost it.

He dropped the rock and turned around under Tawaya's grip.

"I want to go home!" he began to plead.

Tawaya looked down and he pressed his cheek against her chest, "I don't want to deal with any of this shit anymore! I want my family… I want my music… I want my bed…"

"Little Jake stop it!" She rumbled sternly, hoping to snap him out of it.

He stopped a sob and wrapped himself up against her body, though still conscious of her wounds.

"Okay…"

Raising a hand she touched his back and tenderly caressed him.

"It's almost over little Jake."

Tawaya couldn't help but realise that everything that had now happened to this human was her fault; and by extension her responsibility.

"I will set this right Little Jake."

He let out a nervous laugh, before asking "How?"

His voice indicated that he wondered what more needed to be addressed.

Then a horrible possibility came to mind and he recoiled from Tawaya as his face went blank.

"He… he wasn't the only one… There's more…"

' _Tawaya's earlier wounds, she was in a fight before this one!'_

"This fucking, bad blood, he's got buddies doesn't he?"

Tawaya straightened her back and quietly looked back at Jake; her demeanour gave him his answer.

"Oh my god… there are."

He shook his head and brought his hands to either side of his face, "How many more?"

Tawaya held up her thumb and forefinger.

"T-two…" he stuttered before quietly asking again "two?"

She nodded.

"Tawaya how can you, how can 'we' finish this if there are two more out there?"

Bringing a hand up to her mask she unsealed and removed it, she wanted to see her Jake with her own eyes. There was a quiet pause as Jake waited for her face to become visible.

Upon seeing her familiar features Jake actually relaxed, but he was still tense and expecting an answer.

Wincing Tawaya slyly focused on her human and spoke:

"Little Jake… I've got an idea…"


	20. Chapter 20

Tawaya had a plan alright, it made Jake queasy, and he was disgusted, but she had stressed to him that he had to be strong for it to work, so he held it together.

As he walked deeper into the jungle, alone, Jake kept his eyes upwards, and straight ahead. Everywhere except down towards his hands.

Close to his chest he was carrying a very heavy and important, symbolic, item.

Tawaya had told him he was to walk straight, deeper into the jungle, and keep the item close to his body and not to lose it.

For the first little while Jake was 'okay' carrying it, but then he started to notice the actual weight of it

The weight, coupled with the awkward way he was holding it made the experience all the more unpleasant.

A human head weighs about ten pounds, give or take.

A severed Yautja head weighs closer to thirty.

Consciously Jake made efforts to not touch the bloody, wet, and gory, neck – hole.

But it kept slipping.

Jake stopped himself and looked up, sighing with disgust.

"Fuck… Fuck this…"

He tried readjusting his grip on the sides, taking hold of some of the tendril-dreadlocks, but as he did it slipped.

Awkwardly, like it was a watermelon, Jake tried to hold it close but it ended up continuing to slip.

He yelped loudly while he fumbling it.

Dully the head landed onto the leafy ground.

"Shit…"

After smacking the ground it made a half roll before stopping.

Tawaya had removed the mask from the Yautja before she cut it from the body, the whole time Jake was carrying it he was able to avoid eye contact with the dead creature.

But now, after it made its little half roll away, the staring, open, eyes of the male Yautja gazed upwards unblinkingly.

At this point Jake was actually desensitised enough, and had been coached by Tawaya enough that the gory, visceral, and genuinely horrifying fact that he was carrying a decapitated head, and was now picking it back up, wasn't bothering him that much.

He didn't really want to pick it up, but not because he was scared, or stressed, or anything like that; the fact was he was too numb and removed from himself to think that way.

He didn't want to pick it up because his arms were sore from carrying it. If it wasn't so fucked up it would have been comedic.

Begrudgingly Jake reminded himself that Tawaya's plan was entirely dependent on him delivering this head.

And so, aloud he responded to himself, and gave in, "Ugh, okay… Goddamn it."

Bending over the long haired boy looked from side to side as he picked up the head.

Flicking and blowing his bangs off his sweat covered face he made sure he could see and that he wouldn't lose his grip again.

When his hands had wrapped themselves enough dreadlock he exhaled and lifted the dead weight upwards.

He huffed and brought the head close to his abdomen, and after standing he resumed his course.

Before they parted Jake asked Tawaya what he was to do if he lost the direction, or footpath he was on. It takes just a few minutes of walking to become completely lost in a forest or jungle, and Jake was really hoping to avoid that.

So in response his imposing female Yautja assured Jake that he wouldn't get lost, all he had to do, she said, was continue walking downhill, and in a southern direction.

Even though Jake had absolutely no outdoor sense at all; he never camped, hiked, or anything, he was able to follow her simple instructions.

The incline was slight but Jake could tell that he was, indeed, still going downhill and thus still heading where he was supposed to go.

Though he was numb, and mentally distant from all the shock and stress the day had brought, Jake was pleasantly surprised in himself that he hadn't yet fucked up on this vacation too badly.

As his thoughts wandered briefly he remembered that Tawaya said she would be close to him.

They couldn't be together though; she'd have to stay cloaked and quiet for her plan to work.

But if anything were to happen, if they found the bad blood, or if the bad blood found Jake before they got to where they were going she would be able to jump in and insure Jake would be fine.

Though of course he really was hoping that wasn't going to happen.

Tawaya had told Jake that she had a pretty good idea where the bad-blood's ship was, and that's where the other bad-bloods would be.

Jake and Tawaya would get there, and with Jake's help as a distraction, and kind of as bait, Tawaya was going to be able to kill and finish off these insidious Yautja psychos.

Tawaya downplayed the danger Jake was in but she was fairly sure that his holding the decapitated head of the one bad-blood would indicate to the others that there was more going on than a simple display of the trophy.

Minutes of walking in quiet and the boy broke the ambience of the jungle once more.

"This is ridiculous…" Jake huffed.

But he shook his head and continued to heft the odd weight of his charge.

Though he was determined to see this through and finish it; come what may.

As the ground became rockier and less dirt and leafy Jake was determined not to lose his footing, he was not going to fuck up, he was not going to look like a fool, a loser, a weak little bitch.

And he was not going to trip on some rocks or anything again, especially not now.

So intently he looked downwards and watched his footing, carefully he moved himself amidst the uneven terrain and navigated the small rocks, the big ones, the rippling roots and gnarled claws of the jungle coming out from between the crevices.

Overhead the canopy was beginning to give way to a clearing.

Sunlight poured through in brilliant shafts, there's an odd visual sensation in dense jungles with the way that light interacts with dust and debris in the air. The result is that the light was visible in almost physical lines of yellow, ivory, and white.

As you would walk you almost got the desire to move around these shafts of light or else you might hit them. It's one of the most bizarre visual experiences that you never really notice.

Though, of course, if Jake hadn't of been so preoccupied with monitoring his footwork and then the play of the light around him he would have seen that he was no longer 'alone'.

Standing not too far away from Jake, at the edge of the illuminated clearing was the last Bad-Blood.

After he had cleared the rocks without dropping his cargo Jake had an involuntary smile on his face, though it withered away as soon as he saw the new Yautja.

Terror now welled in his chest, his heart beat quickly, and his body released some of the adrenaline it still had left.

His arms and legs grew light, and his primal monkey-brain was yelling at him to drop the head and run for it this time.

But he instead drew himself together. Taking a deep breath Jake took a few steps forward and held up the decapitated head.

Laying it onto the ground slowly and carefully Jake maintained sight of the large alien across from him.

It was motionless except for its breathing.

Like Tawaya and the dead Yautja the alien was ripped, a true model for a workout regime. Though unlike the other Yautja he was sparsely decorated and his chest was exposed; he had nothing adorning his bare shoulders, and instead of armour his upper body was completely nude.

He had two gauntlets, one on each wrist, and from his bottom half Jake could tell he was barely armed.

The Yautja's skin was marred by grisly scars, and his skin appeared rough and dry. Flakes of the scale-skin were coming off, on his pecs, his abdomen, his shoulders, and even his forearms.

The colour of his skin was spotty; while it was similar to Tawaya's but had paler tones and splotches of reddish circles. If Jake didn't know better he would have assumed they were burn marks.

His dreads were pulled back off its shoulders in an almost ponytail like display, and the mask was the most ornate one he had seen so far. It was a very dark metal, nothing like Tawaya's.

The design was rippled and looked very rough to the touch. It was all angled down from the crest on top to the mouth piece which had been twisted and melted into tentacle-like tendrils. It looked like metalwork inspired by Lovecraft's Cthulhu.

But the angle work of the mask was incredibly well done, if not for being absolutely terrifying Jake would have complemented the Yautja on just how cool and 'sick' the mask really was.

The final aspect of the mask which drew Jake's attention was the eyes. Unlike Tawaya's or the dead Yautja the 'eyes' were almost clear.

It was projected or something but rather than being a matte opaque colour it allowed the viewer to see the Yautja's eyes.

While the body language of the Yautja was 'calm' save for the regulated and steady breathing his eyes spoke one word;

 _Rage_

The eyes were the same yellowish colour of Tawaya's but the black colour of the Yautja's skin around them gave him an added level of intensity.

His pupils were narrowed and focused on Jake with singular intent.

And after Jake had locked eyes with him he couldn't look away.

Like he had locked eyes with a bear or a jaguar Jake was now in trouble.

He rose from having placed the decapitated head on the ground and stood straight, waiting.

The Yautja finally broke eye contact with Jake and slowly lowered his gaze to view his fallen comrade's face.

The blank, cold, expression, of the head gave the Yautja's eyes no respite and instead he began blinking furiously.

When he looked back up at Jake he took a heavy, quick, lunge-like step forwards.

Jake's eyes went wide and he stepped backwards and brought his hands up in a defensive gesture reactively.

But as quickly as the Yautja moved he stopped himself. Straining intensely against himself he instead raised a hand and pointed at the head and then back to Jake.

Wordlessly demanding an explanation for the trophy brought before him.

Jake looked around the treeline behind the Yautja for any sign of Tawaya.

The boy's silence irritated the Yautja and he growled loudly.

Jake took in a sharp breath and returned his blue eyes to the Yautja in front of him

"I…"

He began, he took in another breath and tried to push out his chest.

"I killed him."

The Yautja's shoulders moved backwards and rolled as his body physically reacted to the diminutive, puny, human's words.

Jake pressed it, "I strangled him… and I…" he stopped, fear was gripping him so tightly he couldn't feel his own mouth as the words came out.

"I strangled him, and then I cut his head off…"

The Yautja's eyes began looking Jake over head to toe, over and over.

Then the Yautja took a step backwards.

His body language was almost saying 'that isn't possible'. His shoulders and chest was surprisingly expressive, and his whole form contorted itself in disbelief.

Finally the disbelief welled in the Yautja's body to the point that he finally shook his head from side to side.

His head ceased shaking and he finally spoke aloud; the voice was guttural. It was projected loudly from the mask and sounded… dark.

It was low, gurgling, and unbelievably alien. It made Tawaya sound eloquent and demure by comparison.

The sound was so bass-y that it drowned out the sound in between Jake and the Yautja.

" _You?"_ he said. Jake's chin trembled at the sound.

"You… killed him?"

Jake nodded and verbally responded, challenging the creature.

"I did, I cut his fucking throat."

Readjusting his body the Yautja now stood pushing out his chest and shifting his weight to his back leg.

He did not like hearing the confidence or the rebellious tone of Jake's voice.

While Jake was still gripped by terror his voice had come out with something; powerful… despite his small size, despite the high pitch of his voice, despite everything.

And more than that, it was true, it wasn't an artificial boast or a bluff, and this truth was conveyed through Jake because he still couldn't believe it himself.

All of this the Yautja did not like at all and like a caged beast figuring out the fence the Yautja stared Jake down.

Analysing the young man and taking in the sight before him.

Then Jake saw it, in the corner of his eye behind the Yautja he could see Tawaya's shimmer melt out of the shadow.

Clearing his throat Jake spoke up, "What now?"

The Yautja raised its chin and looked down at him. The gesture was as if to non-verbally echo 'now?'

And Jake repeated, "Yeah, now? Aren't you going to do something?"

The Yautja clenched its fists and shifted its weight again.

Behind him Jake could see Tawaya getting closer to the target, silently creeping her way up to the Yautja.

"Maybe, you're going to realise something."

The Yautja looked down at the head again and back up at Jake.

Jake's heart was beating so fast by now.

"Maybe… you'll realise that this." Jake pointed both at himself and the head.

The Yautja furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes, tensing his muscles and flexing his arms to loudly deploy his wrist blades.

Tawaya was just a few feet behind the Yautja now and lowered herself, like a leopard before the pounce.

"Was just a distraction…"

The Yautja was about to take a step forwards towards Jake but Tawaya stopped him.

She roared as loud as she could and wrapped her arm around the Yautja's neck, while bringing her blades to touch the supple skin of his throat.

He froze mid action.

Jake's eyes were wide, 'it worked… it actually fucking worked…'

Tawaya hissed and clicked while she held her pose, the male Yautja clicked and allowed a low rumbling laugh to leave his chest.

The male Yautja's eyes crinkled at the sides and he looked at Jake.

In response Jake confirmed "Yeah… me neither."

"What are you doing Tawaya? Fuckin… end it! Kill him!"

Instead the two Yautja began clicking and speaking to each other in their own language.

Jake's surprise and expression at the success of the ruse began to go away as he watched as the two aliens began talking.

"Tawaya?" his voice cracked in desperation and fear as he stood in disbelief.

"What the fuck are you two doing?! This isn't the fuckin UN!"

Regardless of his protests the two aliens continued their conversation, clicking, growling, and speaking in their strange dialect.

Eventually the male Yautja retracted his blades and relaxed his arms to his sides.

Tawaya pressed her blade and finished her sentence with a slight flick of the steel.

The bright green of the male's blood began to flow from the slice she had made in his skin.

He grunted and hissed at the pain but stood and took it.

Jake expected her to press the attack and deeply rend the Yautja's throat but instead she removed the blade from his skin.

Jake's eyes were manic, "What are you doing? What are you doing!" He continued to chant, while backing away from the head at his feet and the two aliens in front of him.

The male laughed and pointed towards Jake, speaking lowly.

Tawaya growled in response and kicked her knee into the back of the male's thigh.

He grumbled sharply and moved under her tight grip.

She brought the blade back to his skin and clicked and growled.

Jake didn't know what to think or how to react now. He was confused and at a loss.

He was trapped now as a helpless observer.

What they were saying was a mystery, and what Tawaya was going to do was unknown.

But then mid word the male elbowed Tawaya in the side. The sudden flurry of motion was surprising and Jake hadn't realised what had happened at first.

After elbowing Tawaya the male drew his blades again and moved to throw off her arm while attempting to avoid her blade.

Reeling from the hit to her side Tawaya moved her blade as fast as she could; she tried to slash his throat inflicting a lethal wound.

However as they were both moving the male's sudden motion had thrown the direction of her killing stroke off just enough.

Instead of slashing his windpipe and the main arteries and veins killing the Yautja her blade instead carved a deep, deep gash through the thick muscle.

He was able to get out of her grip and stumble forwards while Tawaya moved backwards from her own pain.

With one arm the male Yautja clutched at the grievous wound which was now pouring out blood.

Jake looked on horrified, stuttering as he motioned at the male "G-get him! T-Tawaya!"

Clutching her side with one arm she raised her other to impale the blade as deep as she could in the back of the male's chest.

Looking through his mask at Jake the male had raised his free hand and aimed his fist at him.

Jake watched Tawaya poising to strike and was about to cheer when he heard a metallic-pneumatic sound come from the male. The sound coincided with Jake stopping mid-word.

"Tawa-"

Jake felt like he had been winded, the air in his chest exhaled involuntarily and he felt strange warmth begin to quickly permeate through his shirt.

Tawaya growled and roared as she looked at Jake.

The male still clutching his throat fell forwards and was able to dodge Tawaya's blade, her eyes and attention now focused elsewhere.

With his opponent distracted the male struggled to his feet and simply began to run from the clearing.

Jake finally looked down to see, embedded in his chest, one of the Yautja's blades.

The warmth now soaking his shirt was his own blood.

The sight made his pale face lose expression and his fatigued legs finally gave out from under him as he stumbled backwards.

The feeling of the metal foreign object cut through his muscles caused every minute movement to hurt.

Then the pain truly set in.

Tawaya looked after the male but by now he had run out of sight and certainly out of her field of engagement.

Jake attempted to inhale to recover the air he had lost from the sudden punch-like impact of the ballistic blade, but it was exceptionally difficult.

He fell backwards onto the ground as if he was searching for a chair that was supposed to have been there.

When he collided with the ground he began dryly coughing with almost no air.

It was an uncomfortable wheeze-like sound, the one that corresponds to a punctured lung.

Though Jake didn't know that's what it was.

Tawaya threw herself towards Jake.

His eyes were now tinged with surprise, his body now in disbelief and shock at the sensations he was feeling.

As he attempted to breathe laboriously, only getting the smallest amount of air, he began to feel some wetness come up his throat as he began another round of coughing.

Some bright red blood began to leak out of his lips; it was thick, having been mixed with mucus from his lungs and spit from his mouth.

He tried taking a deep breath but he started to get caught in a trap of heaving and coughing in fear and desperation. It sounded like the hyperventilation that follows a tantrum, or a severe panic attack, but unlike those it was grisly sounding, as if he was both deflated and hollow at the same time.

Tawaya wrapped her bloody right arm around Jake's back and brought her left up to stop his hands.

In his desperation and delirium he brought his hands towards the blade, intent on pulling it out of his chest.

"No Little Jake! Do not!"

She clicked and began speaking in her language.

Now the blood in his throat was getting more copious and he had to cough more of it out.

"Look up, look at me Little Jake!"

His panic stricken eyes looked up towards Tawaya's mask and he tried coughing out words.

"Ta-Tawa-yah…" He coughed deeply and winced at the pain, screeching and reeling from the ripping feeling of his skin and muscles tearing.

Tawaya shook with emotion.

"Hang on Little Jake…"

With her right arm around his back she brought her left arm under his thighs and easily lifted him up.

Jake tried to nod in acknowledgement but his efforts were mostly being focused on being able to breathe.

Coughing loudly he limply leaned his head and body into Tawaya's chest as she rose to her feet.

"Hang on Little Jake!"

She began moving, as quickly as she dared and as she was able.

Mentally she was running through everything.

But at this point there was nothing to say aloud or to think, other than getting him out of here and to his own kind.

'To his people' she thought, 'He'll make it! That's all I can do, get him out of here to them…'

She looked forwards as she began running.

Jake's eyes fluttered as he continued coughing and making pained cries.

He held one hand against his diaphragm, putting pressure on it to try and get a good breath.

But with his other he pressed it against Tawaya's chest, tightly pressing his fingers into her skin.

He groaned and coughed, though he was panicked, and in an unbelievable amount of pain he tried to get Tawaya's attention.

She didn't slow her pace or look down at Jake, "It okay Little Jake!"

Making her way back the general direction they had come Tawaya noticed that this was the second time in a day she was running away from a fight.

But immediately her thoughts responded to her, 'for the right reasons'.

She had never had something selfless to motivate her before.

But she used it to move as best she could, despite her own injuries, despite her own exhaustion.

She kept moving, and kept climbing the slight uphill path back to the edge of the jungle.

Jake was still heaving and coughing in her arms, limply and barely alive, but alive...

Tawaya couldn't tell how far they had come, and how far there was still left to go but she was getting tired.

Many of her wounds began to open.

A horrible possibility began to become clearer.

Then she slowed her pace a little.

Then she slowed a lot.

She had to stop.

She wasn't going to make it.

Jake's coughing had stopped, and his hand had fallen from her chest into his lap.

He was breathing, but meekly, making pained sounds as he strained to take short and shallow breaths.

Tawaya looked around them, there was a small footpath worn into the jungle floor and she began to hopelessly follow it.

Slowly she made long strides down the small path.

In her chest she began to hum. It was a short song, a little lyrical memory she knew that pups enjoyed. She hoped that Jake would like it too.

Though she didn't look down to see his expression she could hear Jake cough and audibly wince as he tried to sigh.

Through the ambience of the birds and animals and over Tawaya's loud footsteps, she could hear running water.

Off the path to their side was a brook, coming from an underground source concealed by overgrowth and thick foliage.

Tawaya stopped humming.

She looked around her.

To their left was the brook, to their right was jungle. To their back was jungle. To their front was jungle. And above them was the oppressive canopy of the jungle.

Stopping her pace she readjusted Jake's weight in her arms and slowly turned to begin walking to the edge of the brook.

Jake's breathing had finally found a comfortable, small, rhythm.

Looking down at her human Tawaya felt nothing but pain in her own chest.

Beside the shallow running water she began to kneel.

Begrudgingly she laid Jake down in an upright sitting position against a hollowed tree stump.

As she did so it was with the care she would have shown a holy relic, or a spider web made of glass.

His wheezing was becoming weaker, though the rhythm he'd found stayed the same.

After he was out of her hands and leaning against the stump he looked up at her and wordlessly understood the situation.

He smirked and the blood smeared on his chin and mouth cracked, dripping down onto his neck and collar.

Weakly he raised a hand, wincing and struggling as he did so.

Pointing to her face, he struggled to form a word and finally managed "…off"

Though Tawaya had understood what he meant as soon as he pointed at her.

Unclicking and removing the mask the two met each other's eyes and shared earnest, pained, looks.

Tawaya furrowed her brow and emotionally grimaced as she looked down at her Little Jake.

Weakly Jake raised his open left hand towards Tawaya, making quiet sounds of pain as he did so.

Tawaya enveloped his small hand in hers and tightly held it.

Jake winced, and tried to smile.

Tawaya felt her chest drop and she began to actually weep. It was noiseless but her eyes began to grow wet. Her breathing became shallow and short and quietly a low moan began to escape her mouth.

The great big, scary, alien was crying.

Jake's eyes began to look downwards as his head lazily drooped, his lips curling in pain.

Over the sound of the water, Jake's very quiet breathing, and Tawaya's involuntary sobbing. Voices could be heard, faintly, in the distance.

Bringing her free hand to Jake's face she pushed his bangs from his eyes and helped lift his head with her hand under his chin.

He coughed again; his pale face was exhausted as he looked up.

Tawaya's eyes conveyed pain and guilt.

"Little Jake…" she began.

Her voice dropped and her breath left her, "I'm sorry…"

Jake moved slightly and he exhaled, wordlessly accepting her apology.

Distraught and wounded deeply, Tawaya leaned forward and pressed her brow against his, humming the same small song from earlier as she did.

She didn't know what else to do.

Leaning back she looked at Jake's eyes for the last time as his heavy lids closed.

She stopped mid-breath and pressed her fingers against his neck there was still a pulse but it was faint.

Again she heard the human voices in the distance.

They were close but she couldn't tell their proximity, nor was she in her top form to have been able to determine that anyway.

She had to do something though, and she looked away from her Little Jake towards the sounds, and she got an idea.

She reluctantly laid down his hand carefully in his lap and re-donned her mask.

After clicking on her wrist computer she looked upwards and took a breath.

When she yelled aloud her voice came through the mask mimicking Jake's.

She yelled as loud as she could in the voice of her human "Help!"

In the distance the human voices she'd heard quieted. She yelled a few more times, and then stopped, turning her ear to listen intently.

Finally after what felt like an eternity the voices in the distance started up again and began getting closer.

She yelled once more for good measure and then looked down at Jake.

Rising to her knees she took hold of his hand again and held it tightly.

Under her breath she struggled to get her words out, but eventually was able to whisper to her unconscious companion.

"I'm sorry Little Jake…"

The humans were getting closer.

Letting go of his hand she stood and began backing away from her human.

Flipping open her wrist computer Tawaya activated her camouflage, melting from view.

Clutching her side she began to slowly walk backwards away from the sound of the approaching humans, though she knew she had to leave, she couldn't take her eyes off Jake's still body.

Straining to lift herself upwards she climbed the base of a thick tree trunk and determined to watch her Jake from a far.

The voices became clearer as the sound of several humans approached.

Clutching her side tightly Tawaya focused on Jake and watched as many armed, uniformed men slowly encroached on the brook.

One of them announced something and then apprehensively approached Jake's body.

The men all looked around intently before taking up positions aimed in different directions around Jake.

One of them knelt by him and closely looked at him.

Tawaya felt hope rise up in her chest as she lowered herself to sit on the branch she was perched on.

"We will meet again Little Jake…"

She whispered to herself.

The toll of emotion, pain, injury, and exhaustion was enough and with the relief of seeing humans surround her Jake Tawaya allowed herself to look away and closed her eyes.

Leaning backwards into the tree she let out a heavy breath and let herself go for a moment.

'I'll rest…'

She nodded slightly, 'yes…'

'Just for a moment,' she paused, taking a breath, 'just for a moment…'

The end

* * *

Afterword:

Thank you to everyone, I hope you have enjoyed my little story; this will be the first 'work' I've ever actually finished so I hope that you will like or be okay with how it turned out. I didn't really have a plan when I started this story but I'm pretty pleased with what it ended up being, especially considering what it started out as, ha! But in all seriousness thank you again. I may, *may* write an epilogue or two but I kind of doubt it.

I apologise for any errors or grammatical issues, it's been a lot of work to do solo, though sometimes I've had some help; for which I will always be grateful.

So, from the bottom of my heart: Thank you!

-For the support, comments, views, kudos, favourites, et cetera.

As always: lots of love.

UPDATE 04/12/18: I probably should have put this here before but! I wrote a sequel for those who are interested:

It's called: An Emo and a Yautja II – The Sequel

Creative title I know…


End file.
